Photo of toddler killed by Russian strike in Kherson region shocks America

The American newspaper featured a photo of a toddler killed by a Russian drone in the Kherson region on its cover. Ukrainian officials said that such strikes are not accidental: the Russians have turned the hunt for civilians into a "safari."

This was stated in a New York Post article.

On July 11, the American tabloid put on the front page a picture of one-year-old Dmytro, a boy who died on July 9 in the village of Pravdyne in Kherson region during a Russian FPV drone attack. The child was playing in the playpen in his grandmother's yard when the drone crashed nearby and shattered into deadly pieces, piercing the heart of the kid who had just celebrated his first birthday.

"I heard a piercing buzzing sound, turned around, and the drone was flying right here," said Halyna, the boy's 64-year-old grandmother.

She rushed to her grandson, but, according to her, he was no longer breathing. The woman suffered a concussion; Dmytro's father, who was raising the boy with her, was not injured.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration, published a photo of the damaged house and toys scattered by the blast wave.

According to the head of the OP, Andriy Yermak, the FPV drone operator saw the child in real time and cold-bloodedly pressed the trigger, continuing the practice of the so-called"human safari" on civilians in southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Armed Forces Lieutenant Denys Yaroslavsky, commander of the reconnaissance unit, confirmed that the FPV camera transmitted a clear image until the impact: there was no mistaking such a precise shot. Former US Marine Eddie Etu, who helps the Ukrainian military with drones, added that any moving object could be a target.

According to the UN, drone attacks in the Kherson region have killed nearly 150 civilians and injured hundreds more since the summer of 2024; Human Rights Watch has documented hundreds of similar attacks using grenades, mines, and incendiary munitions. Dmytryk is the youngest victim of this tactic in recent months.

At the beginning of the year, the British newspaper The Times published a story about Kherson, noting that the city, which had previously celebrated its liberation from Russian occupation, has now become a testing ground for new methods of warfare. The aggressor's forces have turned Kherson into a center of terror, where drones have become the main tool for intimidating and killing civilians.

Анна Бальчінос