Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Russia of committing a war crime today (4/8), after footage emerged apparently showing a drone attack targeting a street vendor in Kherson. In the video released by Ukrainian police, a drone is seen chasing a man around the small truck he used to sell goods. The drone then reportedly strikes the vehicle, causing an explosion, while the man attempts to take cover behind it.
Read also: Russia: Seven killed, including three children, in Ukrainian drone strike on Black Sea resort (Video)
According to Ukrainian police, the street vendor, 52 years old, survived the attack but suffered shock and shrapnel injuries. Reuters verified the location based on building features and road layouts, which matched satellite imagery and archival footage. The exact date could not be independently confirmed, though Ukrainian police and Sybiha stated the incident occurred today.
A civilian was deliberately hunted down and murdered by Russian terrorists in Kherson today.
At a food market in the city’s Tavriiskyi district, a Russian FPV drone operator targeted a civilian vendor standing beside his car, loaded with the vegetables he sold to make a living.… pic.twitter.com/xfyNE4OxpK
— Special Kherson Cat 🐈🇺🇦 (@bayraktar_1love) August 4, 2026
“A barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson,” says Ukraine’s foreign minister
In a Telegram post, Sybiha stated that the attack was part of a deliberate Russian campaign to terrorize civilians. “This barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson demands international condemnation and justice — yet thousands of similar crimes never become publicly known,” he said. The minister stated that the Russian drone operator must have known he was targeting a civilian, calling him a “sadist.” Sybiha called for a “strong defense and deterrence package for Ukraine, and reliable, guaranteed security.”
According to Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets, the victim shown in the footage is an “unarmed street vendor.” He accused the Russian military of “hunting down civilians.”
Two children and an elderly woman were also killed in overnight Russian guided bomb strikes on the city of Sumy in northern Ukraine, according to regional governor Oleh Hryhоrov, who posted the announcement on Telegram.
The city of Kherson, which had a pre-war population of approximately 280,000, was under Russian control from March to November 2022. Russian forces, now positioned on the opposite bank of the Dnipro River that runs through the city, regularly strike it — primarily using drones.
Ukraine has also been striking Russia with long-range drones and missiles, with many of those attacks causing civilian casualties, according to Russian authorities.
Russia yesterday accused Ukraine of terrorism following the deaths of seven people — including three children — and the wounding of 60 others at a Black Sea resort, describing it as a deliberate Ukrainian drone strike on civilians.
Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians in the war triggered by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
