Ukrainian officials accused Russia of deliberately targeting a civilian after video showed a drone chasing a market vendor around a van before exploding and injuring him in Kherson.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Ukraine accused Russia of committing a war crime Tuesday after authorities released video showing a drone pursuing and wounding a street vendor in the southern city of Kherson.
Footage published by Ukrainian police shows an unidentified man attempting to evade the drone by moving around a van being used as a roadside stand. The device follows him before detonating after he dives behind the vehicle for cover.
Police said the victim, a man in his 50s, survived the attack but suffered shrapnel wounds and shock.
Reuters verified the location by matching buildings, vegetation and the road layout with satellite and archived imagery. The precise date of the incident could not be independently confirmed, although Ukrainian police and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said it occurred Tuesday.
Sybiha said the strike was part of what he described as a deliberate Russian effort to terrorize civilians.
“This barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson demands international condemnation and justice, but thousands of similar crimes never come to the public eye,” Sybiha wrote on Telegram.
He said the drone operator would have known that the person being pursued was a civilian and called the pilot a “sadist.”
Sybiha urged Ukraine’s allies to provide “a powerful defense and deterrence package for Ukraine, and reliable, guaranteed security.”
The Kherson incident came as Ukrainian officials reported additional civilian deaths from Russian strikes elsewhere in the country.
Two children and an elderly woman were killed during overnight guided-bomb attacks on the northern city of Sumy, regional Gov. Oleh Hryhorov said on Telegram.
Civilian casualties in Ukraine have risen sharply during 2026, according to the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.
The mission said in July that it had documented 1,396 civilian deaths and 7,978 injuries during the first six months of the year. The figures represented a 37% increase from the same period in 2025 and were more than double the totals recorded in 2024.
The U.N. mission attributed much of the increase to intensified Russian long-range missile and drone attacks on cities and other population centers far from the front lines.
Ukraine has also used drones and long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia. Russian authorities say some of those attacks have caused civilian casualties.
Russia accused Ukraine of terrorism Monday after seven people, including three children, were killed and 60 others were injured at the Black Sea resort city of Gelendzhik.
Russian officials described the incident as a deliberate Ukrainian drone attack on civilians.
Both Moscow and Kyiv deny intentionally targeting civilians in the war, which began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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