One-year-old boy killed in ‘human safari' drone attack

Telegraph

10-07-2025

A one-year-old boy was killed 'mercilessly and deliberately' in a Russian drone attack in southern Ukraine, local authorities said.
The toddler was staying with his great-grandmother in the village of Pravdyne, in Kherson, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, a senior military official.
Mr Prokudin said: 'These children's toys, scattered by the blast wave, belonged to Dmytryk. He was only one year and two months old. Today, he was killed by Russia – mercilessly and deliberately.'
The attack was part of a wider assault on Kherson, where residents feel hunted and refer to repeated drone attacks against civilians as a 'human safari'.
Attacks on Kherson this week focused on residential areas, critical infrastructure and social facilities, killing one person and injuring at least 17 more, authorities said.
According to the United Nations, nearly half of the verified child deaths in Ukraine – 638 – come from explosive weapons used in populated areas.
A recent UN report found that Russia is guilty of committing crimes against humanity in Kherson following a 10-month investigation into drone strikes in the region.
Members of a UN Commission found that Russia was engaged in the deliberate targeting of civilians and concluded that the drone attacks were 'widespread, systematic and conducted as part of a coordinated state policy'.
Attacks are so common that local authorities have strongly advised that civilians stay at home unless they are able to carry a tourniquet – a medical kit that is used to stop life-threatening bleeding.
Drones regularly target supermarkets, cars and buses, according to those who live there.
Anastasia, a 23-year-old aid worker, previously told The Telegraph that many residents feel unable to leave their homes.
She said: 'More and more residents of the city cannot leave the house, even for food, because there is a great possibility that they will not return home.'
Moscow has stepped up its attacks against civilians in recent months, regularly targeting major cities such as Kyiv and Dnipro.
Russian forces fired a total of 741 missiles and drones on Tuesday night, breaking a record that had been set just the Friday before.
On Wednesday night, Russia fired 400 drones and 18 missiles in an attack that lasted nearly 10 hours and killed two people in Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian president said the attack showed the need to impose further sanctions against Russia.
He said: 'This demands that we speed things up. Sanctions must be imposed faster, and pressure on Russia must be strong enough that they truly feel the consequences of their terror.'
Mr Zelensky will be in Rome on Thursday to speak with Ukraine's allies about additional financing for drone interceptors and air defence systems.
Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, is preparing to meet Marco Rubio, his US counterpart, in Malaysia.
Their meeting follows Donald Trump's recent rant about Vladimir Putin, who was accused by the US president of throwing around 'a lot of bulls--t'.
Meanwhile, a recent US pause on military aid, which included crucial Patriot missile interceptors, has officially resumed, according to anonymous officials who spoke to AFP.
The paused shipment included 30 Patriot missiles, 8,500 155mm artillery shells, 250 GMLRS rockets and 142 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles.
Mr Trump claimed that he did not approve the pause, with CNN reporting that Pete Hegseth, the defence secretary, had not informed the White House of his decision.