Video verified by the BBC shows 52-year-old vegetable seller Yuriy being chased through a Kherson street by a drone before it exploded beside him, leaving him alive but wounded.
Yuriy suffered shrapnel injuries and a concussion in an attack Ukrainian officials say fits a Russian FPV-drone tactic aimed at civilians in front-line areas.
Zelensky circulated the footage to spotlight what Ukrainians call a "human safari"—remotely operated drones used to terrorize residents near the front, including in Kherson just miles from combat lines.
Russia has repeatedly denied intentionally targeting civilians, even as such drone strikes have become a wider symbol of the threat facing people in exposed southern and eastern towns.