Ukraine accuses Russia of war crime over Kherson drone attack on vendor
Ukrainian authorities have condemned a targeted drone attack on a civilian vegetable vendor in Kherson as a war crime, releasing footage of the strike.
Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of committing a war crime after a newly surfaced video captured a remote-controlled drone chasing down and wounding a civilian vendor in the southern city of Kherson.
According to footage released by Ukrainian police and shared by national leadership, the small aerial drone relentlessly pursued a man around a delivery van being utilised as a makeshift street vegetable stand. The device ultimately detonated as the vendor dived for cover behind the vehicle. Police confirmed that the victim survived the blast but sustained severe shock alongside shrapnel wounds to both legs and his back.
Media additions
Ukrainian officials subsequently identified the injured vendor as a 52-year-old man named Yurii, releasing a video interview recorded from his hospital ward. Speaking from his bed, Yurii recounted the terrifying moments when the low-flying craft descended upon him and his wife in the open steppe landscape.
"I only just put up the umbrella and started unloading the boxes. My wife was there, too. Then we heard it buzzing but could not even see it. It came from somewhere behind the market, from those bushes over there, and flew in very low. It is open steppe. There is nowhere to go. It is terrifying, of course. Really terrifying."
Yurii, vegetable seller, via Aol
Yurii further revealed that he attempted to signal to the drone operator that he was merely a civilian selling tomatoes and aubergines, according to reporting by The Nightly. While his wife managed to flee the scene unharmed, Yurii was left requiring hospital treatment for his injuries. Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the Kherson regional military administration, noted that the vendor had travelled to the market early in the morning to sell his produce before the targeted assault occurred.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy condemned the attack in strong terms on social media, characterising the incident as part of a wider pattern of intimidation by Russian forces operating in the region.
"Today, many were shocked by yet another video of the drone 'safari' Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson. The world must see this. It must see every piece of evidence that Russia has gone mad and that its soldiers take pleasure in killing and abusing civilians. Without pressure on Russia, the dismantling of its capacity for aggression, and real security guarantees, it is simply impossible to imagine the world being able to coexist with this evil."
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, President of Ukraine, via ABC News
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha echoed these sentiments, asserting on the Telegram messaging app that the attack formed part of an orchestrated campaign designed to break the morale of the local populace. Sybiha described the incident as a barbaric crime that demands global condemnation and justice, noting that countless parallel atrocities go undocumented.
Independent verification of the location was carried out by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and other news agencies, which matched the buildings, road layouts, and vegetation in the viral footage against satellite and archive imagery. While the exact timestamp could not be independently corroborated, Ukrainian law enforcement and foreign ministry officials maintained that the strike took place on Tuesday. Russia's Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the Kherson attack.
The latest strike arrives amid a steep rise in non-combatant casualties across the country. Data compiled by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine recorded hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries during the first half of the year, marking a dramatic increase compared to previous years. Monitors attributed the surge primarily to intensifying long-range missile and drone strikes hitting population centres far removed from active front lines.
At the same time, reciprocal accusations continue to fly between Moscow and Kyiv regarding attacks on civilian infrastructure. Russian authorities recently accused Ukraine of terrorism following a separate strike at a Black Sea resort, which they claimed targeted non-combatants directly. In response, a Ukrainian official maintained that their military operations strictly target the adversary's military-industrial complex and economic infrastructure facilities, asserting that stray munitions only struck civilian areas due to defensive interception systems.
Both nations officially maintain policies denying the intentional targeting of civilians, even as the humanitarian toll of the ongoing conflict continues to escalate across the region.
