‘I showed it our vegetables – it flew at me,’ Ukrainian vendor hunted by Russian FPV drone recalls the attack

Ukrainian Market Vendor Survives FPV Drone Attack After Showing Garlic to Russian Drone

Usagevpn.com – A vegetable merchant in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson has recounted a harrowing encounter with a Russian attack drone that tracked him through his market stall before detonating mere feet away. The incident, recorded on surveillance footage, has been cited by Ukrainian authorities as evidence of a systematic campaign targeting ordinary citizens in civilian spaces.

A Routine Morning Turns Dangerous

Yuriy, a fifty-two-year-old trader originally from the Mykolaiv region, arrived at the Kherson farmers’ market that morning with his wife. They parked their white van and began arranging their produce under umbrellas. Crates were being unloaded when an unusual sound cut through the air. “We heard a buzzing noise,” Yuriy explained from his hospital bed. “You couldn’t see it at first. It emerged from behind the market, from the bushes, and flew very low.” The National Police of Ukraine later released video showing a compact FPV (first-person view) drone hovering above the market. The aircraft shadowed a man in dark clothing—Yuriy—as he moved around his van. The drone adjusted its course in sync with his movements before diving downward and exploding, sending the vendor to the ground.

Showing Garlic to an Attack Drone

Yuriy’s wife immediately fled upon hearing the noise. The drone, however, appeared to lock onto him specifically. “My wife began running away and it started turning, heading toward the vehicle,” he recalled. “I was gesturing toward it, as if to say, ‘look, here are the vegetables,’ but it began swooping down at me. I started running and crashed into the vehicle. We were lined up with it, it struck, and I just fell down. Then I saw that the vehicle was damaged.” He emphasized that nothing in the scene could have been mistaken for a military objective. “I wasn’t filming anything. I was actually holding garlic. If you watch the video, I’m holding two heads of garlic. I was showing him: ‘look, it’s all farm stuff,'” he said. “You saw yourselves in the video that when I was running away from it from that side, it was lowering itself under the umbrella. He could see there were already tomatoes there, some cucumbers, eggplants lying on the ground. So there was nothing there.”

Part of a Broader Pattern

Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets characterized the footage as revealing Russia’s true methodology. “The video shows Russia’s real tactic: pursuing and killing innocent people,” Lubinets stated. “The world must watch without looking away. This is how Russia hunts civilians.” For Yuriy, this was not his first brush with aerial attack. “This is already the second time. The first time I was going to my mother-in-law’s. Back then we managed to run away from the drone,” he said. “So we repaired the car like that, because we’ve got nothing else to use for transport, to bring things in or take them out.” This time, escape was impossible. When the drone’s munition detonated, the blast tore through the rear of the van and knocked him off his feet.

Injuries and Legal Response

Police and regional officials confirmed that Yuriy sustained a concussion, blast trauma, and multiple shrapnel wounds to his back and legs. He remains in stable condition. Ukrainian police and local authorities have stressed that the victim shows no signs of being a combatant, describing him simply as a vegetable trader from the Mykolaiv region who came to Kherson to sell produce. The attack is being logged as another suspected war crime by Russian forces, and Ukraine’s prosecutors have opened a case.

FPV Drones and Civilian Casualties

Officials say the Kherson incident is part of a broader trend: low-flying FPV drones used not just to strike frontline positions but to pursue individual civilians in streets and markets near the southern front. UN monitors have reported a sharp rise in drone-related civilian casualties this year, with such attacks accounting for a growing share of injuries and deaths. The proliferation of these relatively inexpensive, highly maneuverable drones has transformed how modern warfare affects non-combatants, extending the reach of aerial attacks far beyond traditional battlefields. The Mykolaiv region, from which Yuriy hails, has experienced significant displacement due to prolonged fighting. Many residents have relocated to safer areas while maintaining economic ties to their communities through trade and commerce. The destruction of Yuriy’s van represents not only personal loss but also a disruption to livelihood in a region where transportation remains critical for daily survival. As international legal mechanisms examine these incidents, the Kherson case may serve as a precedent for how civilian-targeted drone attacks are classified and prosecuted under international humanitarian law.