Ukraine War05 August, 20262 min read
Russian FPV Drone Hunts Vegetable Vendor Yurii in Kherson Market, Ukrainian Officials Say
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52-year-old vegetable vendor Yurii chased by Russian FPV drone at Kherson market Zelenskiy described the attack as a 'human safari' by Russia
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Drone hunt in Kherson
A Russian FPV drone chased and then detonated beside a civilian vegetable vendor, Yurii, in a market area in Kherson, Ukraine, injuring him after the attack was captured on video released by Ukrainian authorities. Ukrainian officials described the incident as part of a wider pattern of “human safari” strikes on civilians, and they said the victim showed “no signs of being a combatant,” describing him as a vegetable trader from Mykolaiv region who came to Kherson to sell produce.
Euronews reported that Yurii said the drone flew low from behind the market and that he was holding garlic when it attacked, while Ukrainian prosecutors opened a case and the attack was being logged as a suspected war crime. Sky News framed the episode as a moment when a Russian drone “hunted” a man in a market, and it identified the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as saying the man was a civilian selling vegetables.
Zelenskyy and Lubinets react
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack as a crime and said “Every single day, ordinary people in Kherson face these Russian ‘safaris’,” as the video circulated internationally. Euronews quoted the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets saying, “This is how Russia hunts civilians,” adding that the “video shows Russia's real tactic: pursuing and killing innocent people.”
The Euronews account said Yurii described the drone as seeming to fix on him alone, and it reported that police and regional officials stressed he was not a combatant. SMH.au similarly described the strike as a “human safari” in which Russian drone operators watch for civilians and follow them with airborne explosives, and it said Yurii was taken to hospital suffering from shrapnel wounds and concussion.
Broader drone threat and stakes
Ukrainian officials said low-flying FPV drones were being used not just to strike frontline positions but to pursue individual civilians in streets and markets near the southern front, and they said UN monitors reported a sharp rise in drone-related civilian casualties this year. SOFX reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released video showing the man identified as Yurii running between parked vehicles as the low-flying drone followed him, and it said Ukrainian officials were investigating the incident as a possible war crime.
The Kyiv Independent reported that Kherson Oblast Police spokesman Andrii Kovanyi said scenes like this have been a daily occurrence in Kherson over the last two years, and it quoted him saying Russian troops “do not hesitate in attacking people who are clearly, as can be seen in this video, civilians.” In the same reporting, the Kyiv Independent quoted sales manager Olga Suprunenko saying, “We already live in constant fear,” and it described residents as trying to reduce risk while continuing to live under frequent drone attacks.