Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has shared video of a Russian drone hunting down a vegetable seller and exploding in an alleged attack on a civilian.

The footage shows the drone pursuing a man around a van being used as a street ‌stand before exploding as he dives for cover behind the vehicle.

Ukraine police said the man in his 50s survived but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries.

Ukrainian officials later identified him as a 52-year-old called Yurii and released a video interview with him from a hospital ward.

Vegetable seller Yurii is the latest Ukrainian civilian attacked by a drone. Photo: X

Yurii said he tried to signal to the drone operator that he was only selling tomatoes and aubergines.

“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,” he said.

“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.”

On the video, Yurii showed his wounds on both legs and also on his back.

His wife ran ​off and was not injured, he said.

Yurii was setting up his stall when the drone targeted him. Photo: X

Zelensky said many people were shocked by “yet another video of the drone ‘safari’ Russians are carrying out against civilians in Kherson”.

“A Russian drone deliberately hunted down a man selling vegetables and detonated right next to him,” he wrote on X.

“The Russians even admitted to the crime, showing zero regret and openly boasting about tormenting people. The man was wounded in the blast.

“Every single day, ordinary people in Kherson face these Russian “safaris.”

The drone exploded behind the van where Yurii had ducked for cover. Photo: X

Reuters verified the location ​using buildings, the road layout and vegetation that matched satellite and archive imagery.

The date could not be independently confirmed but Ukraine’s police and Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the incident happened on Tuesday.

Sybiha said the attack formed part of a deliberate Russian campaign to intimidate civilians.

“This barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson demands international condemnation and justice but thousands of similar crimes never come to the public eye,” he wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine is also attacking Russia with drones and long-range missiles, many of which have caused civilian casualties, Russian authorities say.

Russia on Tuesday accused Ukraine of terrorism after seven people, including three children, were killed at its Black Sea holiday resort of Gelendzhik in what it said was a deliberate Ukrainian drone attack on civilians.

A Ukrainian official ​said that the drone only fell on the beach in Gelendzhik because it was shot down by Russian air defences, adding that “Ukraine uses its weapons exclusively against ​the Russian military-industrial complex and economic infrastructure facilities”.

Both ⁠Russia and Ukraine deny targeting civilians in the war triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In the southern Kherson region, Ukrainian and Russian troops are facing off across the Dnipro River.

The regional capital, Kherson, lies within range of remote-controlled small drones, and there are repeated reports of targeted attacks on civilians.

In July, the United Nations Human Rights ​Monitoring ​Mission in Ukraine said it had documented 1396 civilian deaths and 7978 ​injuries in the first six months of 2026, marking a 37 per cent increase from 2025 and ‌more than double the figures from 2024.

It said that the surge in civilian casualties was primarily driven by intensifying Russian long-range missile and drone strikes targeting cities far from the front lines.

-with DPA