KYIV: A Russian drone attack on a minibus in the frontline city of Kherson killed four people on Wednesday, Kyiv said, slamming the attack as part of a "safari"-style hunt against Ukrainian civilians.
Russian forces regularly strike the southern Ukrainian city -- under Moscow's control from March to November 2022 -- with drones in what Ukraine says is purposeful targeting of civilians.
"Russian military forces attacked a bus travelling down a street in Kherson with a drone. As a result of the attack, according to preliminary information, four civilian passengers were killed," the prosecutor's office said in a statement.
"The vicious Russian 'safari' against our people in Kherson has long gone beyond anything a normal person could imagine," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
He added that five people were wounded in the attack on an "ordinary minibus".
Ukraine's police posted images showing the floor of the vehicle stained with blood, its windows shattered and a damaged roof.
"These are the realities of everyday life in Ukraine's frontline regions. While partners hesitate over additional supplies of defense equipment, the Russians have long run wild," Zelensky said.
Ukraine earlier this month accused Russia of chasing a civilian on a street market in Kherson with a remotely piloted FPV drone before detonating its explosive charge.
Kyiv denounced it as a deliberate "hunt" against the man who survived the blast but sustained blast trauma and shrapnel wounds.
Kherson had a population of around 280,000 before the war.
Russian forces, repelled from the city by a Ukrainian counter-offensive in the autumn of 2022, are now positioned on the opposite bank of the Dnieper river which flows past the city.
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.