Russia accused of war crime after drone footage shows vendor chased through market

Video footage circulating online appears to show a Russian drone operator pursuing a civilian street vendor through a Ukrainian market in what has been described as a 'human safari' attack. The Independent reports the incident as a potential war crime, while the BBC carries the footage showing the drone chasing the vendor.

The footage emerged alongside separate reports of a Ukrainian drone strike on a Black Sea resort beach, which killed seven people according to The Independent. The incidents illustrate the expanding theatre of civilian targeting on both sides - Russia's reported hunting of individuals with FPV drones, and Ukraine's deepening strikes into Russian territory.

The machinery here is the first-person-view drone, a technology that has moved from hobbyist racing to battlefield instrument in less than a decade. The operator watches through the drone's camera in real time - hence 'first-person view' - and steers it manually to the target. What changes is the collapse of distance between decision and consequence: the pilot watches the pursuit unfold as though playing it, frame by frame, until impact. The Geneva Conventions were written for artillery and air raids, weapons that killed at a remove. The law has not yet caught up to a war where the operator watches the victim run.

What to watch: whether the International Criminal Court opens an investigation into the market footage, and whether either side's use of drones against individuals in civilian settings becomes a formal charge. The technology is now ubiquitous; the legal category is still forming.