Ukrainian authorities on Tuesday expressed outrage over a video showing a man chased by a drone in the southern city of Kherson and denounced it as a deliberate "hunt" targeting civilians.
In the footage, which could not immediately be verified by AFP, a man seeks shelter behind a vehicle from a remotely piloted FPV (first-person view) drone pursuing him before detonating its explosive charge.
The man, a vendor at a Kherson street market, "suffered bodily injuries but survived," head of Kherson City Military Administration Yaroslav Shanko said on Telegram.
According to Ukraine's police, the 52-year-old sustained blast trauma, shrapnel wounds and a concussion.
"This is how Russians 'fight'. They deliberately hunt civilians," the police said in a statement published on social media.
"This barbaric Russian war crime in Kherson requires international condemnation and justice," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on X.
"This is a deliberate and systemic Russian strategy ... The sadist operating this drone knows full well that he is targeting a civilian," he added.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said that the "video shows Russia's real tactic: pursuing and killing innocent people."
"The world must watch without looking away. This is how Russia hunts civilians," Lubinets said.
The city of Kherson, which had a population of around 280,000 before the war, was under Russian control from March to November 2022.
Russian forces, now positioned on the opposite bank of the Dnieper river -- which flows past the city -- regularly strike it, particularly with drones.
There has been an uptick in civilian deaths in the conflict throughout 2026, the United Nations has reported, as the four-and-a-half-year war grinds on with no sign of a peace deal.
Russian authorities also regularly accuse Kyiv of deliberately targeting civilians with drones, particularly in regions bordering Ukraine.
