‘I showed them the vegetables’: Russian drone hunts market trader in 'human safari' through Kherson before exploding in fireball
Shocking footage shows the moment a Russian drone hunts an unarmed Ukrainian vegetable seller through a market in broad daylight before exploding beside his van and peppering him with shrapnel.
Yuriy, 52, was setting up his stall with his wife in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson when they heard the drone flying low above the market.
He said he tried to show the operator the garlic and vegetables in his hands to make clear he was a civilian and posed no threat. But this act made no difference.
“We started setting up, put up the umbrella, and I began taking out the boxes,” Yuriy said from his hospital bed.
“We heard a humming sound. We couldn’t see it. It came flying out from somewhere behind the market, where the bushes are, and flew so low.”
His wife managed to run away, but the drone turned towards him.
Footage shows the drone it circling Yuriy before following him as he desperately tries to get away around the side of his van.
There are no soldiers, weapons or military equipment visible. Instead, the drone operator has a clear view of a man standing beside boxes of tomatoes, cucumbers, aubergines and garlic.
“I pointed it out to him. Look, it’s just vegetables,” Yuriy said.
“But then it started coming at me, so I started to run away.
“I didn’t take any pictures of it. Nothing. I actually had garlic in my hands and I was showing it to him.
“You saw that it even came out from under the umbrella when I was running away from him. It saw that there were tomatoes, cucumbers and aubergines lying on the ground.”
Read more:24 hours in Kherson: Inside the Ukrainian city where Russian drones hunt civilians from the sky
The drone then struck the van as Yuriy stood beside it, throwing him to the ground and leaving him with shrapnel wounds to his torso and arms.
He also suffered damage to his ears from the blast and bruising across his body.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Yuriy had been “hunted” as part of what he described as a Russian “drone safari” against civilians in Kherson.
Anton Zemlianyi, the senior analyst at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre (USCC), told LBC: "This video provides further evidence of deliberate war crimes committed by the Russian military as part of a strategy of terrorising the civilian population. Despite the fact that the man survived and signalled that he was a civilian, the drone operator deliberately attacked him — such strikes are systematic in nature, both along the front line and in rear areas."
He added, "The Russian military makes no secret of its actions and even circulates videos of them, which underscores the deliberate nature of these crimes. At the same time, the Ukrainian Defence Forces are taking measures to counter such attacks and protect the civilian population."
As LBC has reported previously, the phrase “human safari” has increasingly been used by residents and aid workers to describe attacks in which Russian FPV drone operators are accused of deliberately pursuing people through the streets.
Unlike an artillery shell fired from miles away, FPV drones send a live video feed back to their pilot, allowing the operator to watch a target, change direction and choose exactly when to strike.
In Yuriy’s case, the footage shows the drone operator had a clear and prolonged view of a civilian market trader before continuing the attack.
Natalia Serhiyenko, a humanitarian partner working with Hope For Ukraine in Kherson, said: “Here is a video showing a drone hunting down an ordinary person this morning who simply came to the market to sell vegetables.
“Those monsters have nothing sacred left in them. That is why we are being very cautious now when delivering aid, because it is currently very, very dangerous.”
Yuriy Boyechko, chief executive of Hope For Ukraine, said: “Seeing everyday people targeted while simply trying to make a living and feed their neighbours breaks the heart.
“Civilians are not targets, and targeting those providing aid is a cruel attempt to crush the human spirit, a reality lived daily in Kherson, where endless drone strikes have turned ordinary streets into a living nightmare.
“In the face of such unimaginable fear, we are reminded that protecting innocent life is a shared moral duty.
“We call on the international community not to turn a blind eye to these atrocities, to demand immediate accountability and to act decisively to protect the innocent.”
Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation in November 2022, but remains under constant attack from Russian forces positioned across the Dnipro River.
What was once a busy southern Ukrainian city has become a place where residents judge ordinary journeys by the sound above them, listening for the buzz of a drone and looking for somewhere to hide.