A 1-year-old boy was “mercilessly and deliberately” executed in a Russian drone attack in southern Ukraine — where terrified residents say they feel they are being hunted in a sick game of “human safari,”officials said.

The boy, identified as Dmytryk, was playing at his grandmother’s yard in Pravdyne on Wednesday when the drone came crashing in, causing shrapnel to pierce his heart and kill the toddler who celebrated his first birthday just two months ago. 

“Our little boy was here, in the playpen, walking around,” his distraught grandmother, Halyna, 64, told local Ukrainian outlet Podrobnosti. 

“I heard the wind and the drone buzzing so much, I turned my head, and it flew right there,” she recalled.  

“I flew like crazy to the child. I shouted: ‘Baby, baby, run!’ (The father) had already jumped up and taken him in his arms, but he was already dead,” the grandmother sobbed. 

Haunting images of little Dmytryk’s play area show glass and debris flung all over his toys, with sections of the fence around the house blown clear off. 

The home’s wooden roof was also damaged, while pictures showed the window of the front door completely shattered. 

A piece of the drone’s explosive payload package was left sitting right outside the house.  

“These children’s toys, scattered by the blast wave, belonged to Dmytryk,”  Ukrainian senior military official Oleksandr Prokudin told The Telegraph.

“He was only one year-and-two-months old. Today, he was killed by Russia – mercilessly and deliberately,” he added.

Prokudin said the boy, who was being raised by his father and grandmother, died instantly from the blast. Halyna suffered a concussion, city officials added.  

Both Russia and Ukraine use “first person view” (FPV) drones, in which soldiers remotely fly the bomb-laden aircraft while viewing the footage live. The drones then drop bombs or crash into their targets and explode.

Russia has used such drones to terrorize the local population of Kherson — hunting civilians who are out in the open and detonating their deadly payload.

Andriy Yermak, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s right-hand man, told The Post that the attack that killed the boy was no coincidence. The FPV drones give Russian pilots a clear view of their target, with the live footage only getting clearer the closer they get to the victim.

“This wasn’t an accident. This was a manhunt,” Yermak said. “The operator watched a child playing through his drone camera, and he attacked in cold blood.

“This is just one case among hundreds. For Russians, killing civilians in Ukraine has become a sport,” he added. 

The frequency of the drone attacks in Kherson has led civilians to describe their home as a “human safari zone,” where they are hunted from the sky by the deadly Russian devices.  

Lt. Denis Yaroslavsky, who commands a special reconnaissance unit for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, also said the horrific attack on an innocent family wasn’t a mistake. 

Lt. Denis Yaroslavsky, who commands a special reconnaissance unit for the Ukraine Armed Forces, told The Post that the attack that killed the boy was no coincidence. The FPV drones give Russian pilots a clear view of their target, with the live footage only getting clearer the closer they get to the victim.

“I don’t think it was a mistake, especially some of the soldiers in the Russian army who were serving sentences in Russian prisons for murder,” he said of the attack, referencing Moscow’s policy to use thousands of convicts in the war.

“Some of them [have] severe mental disorders and, most importantly, killing via FPV drone is psychologically different from killing with a weapon in person. It is more like a computer game where you don’t feel emotions,” Yaroslavsky added. 

Eddie Etue, a retired Marine who fought for Ukraine and now helps construct drones for Kyiv troops, said he’s not surprised by the cold-blooded carnage in Kherson anymore. 

“It’s what Russians do. It’s been happening in Kherson for over a year. In the Russian telegram channels, they call it a ‘drone safari,’” he said. 

“For Russian drone operators, it’s not a question of is it, or could it be, a legitimate military target. It’s a question of is it moving? 

“If yes, kill it. Vehicle, man, woman, child, dog. Doesn’t matter. It’s a game for them,” Etue added. 

Kherson has been devastated by such attacks since the summer of 2024, with nearly 150 civilians killed and hundreds more injured, according to the United Nations. 

Hundreds of these strikes were reported over the last year, along with attacks from grenades, landmines and other incendiary weapons, according to the New York City-based Human Rights Watch group. 

“The drones send live video feeds back to their operators, who control the drones’ flight and use of weapons with deadly precision from up to 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away,” the HRW’s June 2025 report found.

The HRW found that the drones used in the attacks are smaller quadcopters that allow for more maneuverability and precision, allowing Russian soldiers to aim at single human targets. 

Many of the drones used in Kherson measure less than 16 inches and are operated using a smartphone or handheld-controller.   

The human rights group documented at least 45 drone attacks in the villages of Antonivka and Dniprovskyi that appear to show the UAVs “deliberately” targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure. 

One of the cases included video from Russian military-affiliated Telegram channels showing a 23-year-old mother of two being targeted by a drone while cycling near the Antonivka Bridge last September. 

The drone could be seen chasing the panicked mother before dropping an explosive munition that hits just a few feet away from her, leaving the victim with a broken leg.  

The United Nations, which found Russia guilty of crimes against humanity in Kherson over the drone attacks in May, recorded similar incidents. 

One of the cases highlighted by the UN focused on a 45-year-old man who was riding a moped in the village of Stanislav last November when a drone hit him, badly injuring his leg. 

When an ambulance arrived to pick him up, another drone dropped two explosives on the emergency vehicle. 

“The evidence collected leaves no doubt that the perpetrators intended to carry out these acts” the UN Human Rights Council said in a statement.

“The Commission therefore concludes that Russian armed forces perpetrated the war crime of intentionally directing attacks against civilians in Kherson Province. It also finds that posting videos of civilians being killed and injured amounts to the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity,” the agency added.  

Yaroslavsky added that the attacks are also a result of Moscow trying to make sure every drone inflicts maximum carnage, with soldiers using drones with depleted energy cells to go after any target they can spot.   

“We often witness how FPV drones fly into frontline cities and, even with an almost dead battery, hit any target, including civilian ambulances or even children,” the commander said. 

“The enemy doesn’t want to waste a drone, so the operator simply decides to strike whatever they see.”

Kherson was the first major city captured by Russia after it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with Kyiv soldiers engaging in a nine-month battle to liberate the city.

The Russian troops, however, repositioned their forces across the Dnieper River, where they began firing the deadly drone attacks. 

The attacks in Kherson come as Russia has also escalated its drone bombardment across all of Ukraine, firing a record 728 UAVs and missiles on Tuesday night. 

Moscow followed up the attack with more than 400 drones and 18 missiles overnight, killing two people in Kyiv. 

Experts say the ever-escalating aerial attacks from Russia indicate that Moscow has completed its drone-manufacturing plants, where production is ramping up. 

Christina Harward, a Russia analyst for the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank, said the new Russian drones have been modified from the original Iranian Shahed version. 

“We’re seeing decoy drones, which made up about half of last night’s assault, now equipped with actual warheads to keep the Ukrainians guessing,” Harward told The Post. 

“Other drones are also being equipped with chemical weapons to cause damage even when they’re intercepted by Ukraine,” she added.