A 52-year-old vegetable vendor in Kherson miraculously survived after a Russian FPV drone chased him around his market stall for nearly 40 seconds before exploding, Ukrainian authorities said, calling the incident a war crime.
Footage released by Ukraine's national police shows the man running around a truck he used as a vegetable stall, dodging the low-flying drone as it repeatedly changed direction to follow him. The drone circled above before diving towards the ground and exploding in a fireball.
The victim, Yurii, said he had just arrived with his wife to sell vegetables when he heard the drone. His wife fled, and the drone turned to chase him. He held up garlic and pointed to his vegetables, hoping the operator would see he was a civilian, but the drone did not stop.
Yurii suffered injuries from the blast, shrapnel wounds to his legs and back, and concussion. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said such drone "hunts" against civilians happen daily in Kherson and called for international pressure on Moscow.
Russia has not commented on the attack but has denied targeting civilians. Kherson, on the west bank of the Dnipro River, remains within range of Russian FPV drones operating from the east bank.
