Zelenskyy posts video of Russian drone hunting a vegetable vendor in Kherson: 'The world must see this'

The attack

Video published on 4 August 2026 shows a Russian small FPV drone pursuing a street vendor beside a white delivery van in Kherson. A green umbrella is set up and cardboard boxes of vegetables sit on the ground. The man folds his hands pleadingly and runs around the van to escape, but the drone tracks him and detonates on impact next to him. The footage surfaced on a Kherson Telegram channel and was later shared by local police; its original source is unknown.

The victim

Kherson's regional military administration chief, Olexander Prokudin, released a second video showing the wounded man in a hospital bed. He was identified as 52-year-old Yuriy, a vegetable seller. According to doctors quoted by several outlets, he survived with multiple shrapnel wounds, a concussion and trauma. In the hospital video Yuriy described laying out tomato, cucumber and aubergine crates with his wife when the drone's buzzing was heard. His wife fled, and the drone turned toward him.

I showed him: "Look, vegetables!"

Yuriy said he held garlic toward the drone's camera to signal he was not a military target. "It flew under the umbrella and saw that there were tomatoes and aubergines," he added. Nevertheless the drone stayed on him.

The reaction from Kyiv

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared the video on Telegram the same day, calling it further evidence of a Russian 'drone safari' against civilians in Kherson. He said such attacks happen daily.

The world must see this. It must see every single piece of evidence that Russia has lost its mind, and every fact that Russian soldiers take joy in killing and torturing people.

Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the strike as a "barbaric war crime" and argued the drone operator was fully aware a civilian was in the crosshairs. "The drone attacks were a deliberate and systematic Russian strategy," he said.

Kherson's front-line exposure

Kherson city lies within range of Russian-controlled small drones across the Dnipro River. Ukrainian and Russian forces face each other along the waterway, and the regional capital is the closest metropolitan area to Russian positions. This geography has produced repeated reports, particularly from Kherson, of remote-controlled drones being used to hunt individual civilians. The term 'Human Safari' is used by Ukrainian authorities and international observers to describe such targeted harassment in near-front areas.

BBC Verify geolocated the market scene to a square beside a roundabout in the Tavriiskyi neighbourhood of northern Kherson. The outlet noted the earliest publicly available version of the clip was circulated by a pro-Ukrainian Instagram account on Tuesday morning.

Diplomatic call

Zelenskyy renewed calls for international pressure on Moscow to end the war, arguing it affected not only Ukraine. He urged Russia's neighbouring states to cooperate on genuine security guarantees and on steps to bring the conflict to a close.