Russian 'safari' drone attack on minibus kills four, Ukraine says
A Russian drone attack on a bus in Kherson in southern Ukraine killed four people and injured several others on Wednesday, the regional prosecutor's office said in a statement.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared images of the bus in a post on X, highlighting that it was "absolutely clear" that the bus was carrying civilian passengers.
"The vicious Russian 'safari' against our people in Kherson has long gone beyond anything a normal person could imagine," Zelenskyy wrote.
Russian forces often target the city of Kherson, which Ukraine claims is the deliberate targeting of civilians. Earlier this month, Ukraine accused Russia of deliberately targeting a civilian at a market in Kherson.
“This is exactly how the Russians are fighting their war — they deliberately target civilians,” the police had written in a Telegram post, noting that the man in the video “shows no signs of being a combatant, he is simply selling vegetables and fruit at the market.”
Police previously said Russian forces have been using drones against civilians, vehicles, public transport and emergency workers in Kherson on a daily basis.
The attack on the bus comes just a week after Russia targeted two passenger trains in Ukraine's Odesa region, which had killed two people and injured a child.
A recent report by the United Nations revealed there has been an increase in civilian deaths in the past year.
In July, the number of civilians deaths in Ukraine hit a record-high, the highest since May 2022, the first months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"At least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 injured in Ukraine in July, a 30 percent increase compared with the previous month and a 70 percent increase compared with July 2025," the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission said in a statement on Thursday.
Russian authorities have also reported an increase in civilian casualties on its territories in the first six months of of 2026, "citing 250 civilians killed and 1,596 injured, a 121% increase compared with the same period in 2025," according to the UN body.
Overnight into Wednesday, Russia launched two ballistic missiles and 65 drones at Ukraine, local media reported.
In Zaporizhzhia, two people person were killed and at least ten injured by Russian drone strikes, Governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on Telegram.
And in the Donetsk region, Russian attacks killed one person and injured four others, Governor Vadym Filashkin wrote.
Russia and Ukraine both exchanged 103 captured soldiers on Wednesday.
"Among those released are warriors who defended Ukraine in Mariupol and in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Dnipro, and Sumy sectors," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on X.
"We remember every man and woman who still remains in captivity. We are doing everything possible to bring all our people home," he added.
While talks on ending the war in Ukraine remain largely stalled, prisoner exchanges and soldier repatriations have been among the few areas of cooperation between Russia and Ukraine.
The United Arab Emirates mediated the exchange, as it has previously brokered several other swaps between the two since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.