Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has published a video showing a Russian drone homing in on a street vendor in southern Ukraine, which he said illustrates a “safari” attack on civilians. Drone Chases vendor in Kherson RegionThe footage, shared on Zelensky’s social media, depicts a drone hovering above a city street in the Kherson region as a man walks near a white van. As the drone follows, the vendor runs around the vehicle while the drone tracks him through the street. The drone then drops towards him and detonates on impact. A doctor treating the injured man said he survived the attack with multiple shrapnel wounds, concussion and psychological trauma. Zelensky said the video provided evidence of Russian attacks intended to terrorise civilians. Ukraine Says Attack Is Deliberate StrategyUkrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called the incident a “barbaric war crime”. He said the drone operator knew the target was a civilian and described “human safari” deployments as a deliberate and systemic Russian approach used to intimidate people in areas near the front line. Sybiha said the assault formed part of a wider campaign aimed at discouraging civilians and urged international condemnation. Kherson’s regional governor later posted a separate video of the vendor, identified as Yuriy, speaking from a hospital bed after the attack. Vendor Describes Moment of AttackYuriy said he and his wife had been arranging crates of vegetables beside the van when he heard a buzzing sound overhead. He said his wife ran away first, and the drone then shifted towards him. According to Yuriy, he held up garlic towards the drone’s camera as he fled, saying it was meant to show the operator that he was not filming. He also said the drone appeared to adjust its movement as he ran, including ducking under an umbrella during his escape. BBC Verify said it geolocated the video to a market area near a roundabout in the Tavriiskyi district in northern Kherson. The outlet said it was not clear who recorded the attack, but that the earliest public copy it found had been shared by a pro-Ukrainian Instagram account on Tuesday morning. Reports Link Drone “Safaris” to Civilian Harm“Safari” attacks have been reported by Ukraine and others as a recurring tactic by Russian forces in Kherson, a region located only a few miles from the front line. A United Nations report in 2025 said it had found that Russian armed forces “recurrently killed and injured civilians” in the area by using drones to target them. The UN said footage recorded by drones before they hit victims is often posted online, allowing large numbers of people to watch the final moments of attacks, and it described such posting as a violation of personal dignity. Russia denies targeting civilians and says it does not conduct attacks intended to harm non-combatants. It launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Join the discussion? 5 August 2026
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