Russia slaughtered two elderly civilians and their small dog who were evacuating their homes under a white flag on Monday in the latest “human safari” drone attack in eastern Ukraine.
The pair were walking down a country road in Kruglyakivka — a village in Kharkiv Oblast south of Kupiansk, where Moscow has recently advanced, according to the DC-based Institute for the Study of War, when they were targeted in back-to-back drone attacks, according to video released by Ukraine.
Forced from their homes after nearly four years of war, the two civilians carried with them a white flag indicating that they were not combatants – meaning that killing them could be considered a war crime.
In the video, an explosive drone lies in wait as the civilians make their way out of the area with a small black and white dog leading the way.
Suddenly, the drone – piloted by Russians with a video feed of the civilian targets – pops out of its hiding spot in the long grass along the roadside, flying directly into the first person and the dog.
The drone then explodes in a massive blast, launching the flag out of the victim’s hands and into a nearby field. As the thick, black smoke clears, the dog violently twitches next to its slain owner, bleeding out in the road.
Witnessing the horror, the second person – an elderly man – appears to understand what is coming for him next.
He stops in his tracks and makes the sign of the cross – a Catholic prayer gesture. Moments later, a second drone zooms into view and explodes, leaving the old man dead at the side of the road.
“Russian troops have once again shown their true face of terror and inhuman cruelty by conducting a ‘false flag operation,’” according to the communications department of the 77th Separate Airmobile Dnipro Brigade, 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Russia sought to blame Ukraine for the slaughter.
“The enemy filmed this attack themselves with the aim of further spreading the footage in propaganda materials and falsely accusing the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This fact indicates a systematic practice of disinformation and an attempt to shift the blame for war crimes onto our side,” the statement continued.
The Kharkiv regional prosecutor’s office in Ukraine said it launched a war crime investigation into the killings, noting “there were no military facilities or positions near the site of the hit.”
Monday’s attack was just the latest in a series of targeted strikes on civilians by Russians using FPV drones in what has been widely described as “human safari” killings.
Two weeks ago, an 84-year-old Ukrainian grandmother and her two goats were “blown to pieces” when a Russian piloted an explosive drone directly into her as she walked along a paved road in Kherson.
The elderly are commonly targeted in eastern Ukraine, as many refuse to leave their homes as Russians advance on their villages due to their age, ability – and the reality that they have often spent their entire lives in their homes, according to countless interviews by The Post with residents in the war zone and official Ukrainian death statistics.
However, Russians commonly target people of all ages in their drone hunts. In July, a 1-year-old boy was “mercilessly and deliberately” executed in a Russian drone attack in southern Ukraine, officials said at the time.
The boy, named Dmytryk, was playing at his grandmother’s yard in Pravdyne when the drone came crashing in, causing shrapnel to pierce his heart and kill the toddler who celebrated his first birthday just two months earlier.
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