A CAR filled with two of Vladimir Putin’s security officials has been reportedly blown up in a brazen assassination attempt by Kyiv.
Dramatic footage shows a huge inferno engulfing the car in occupied Ukraine after both the senior officials escaped with life-threatening injuries.
East2WestThe assumed assassination attempt left the car completely engulfed in flames[/caption]
East2WestOne of the victims of the car bombing was Police Lt-Col Vladimir Pakholenko[/caption]
The car bombing in the Russian-held eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk left deputy interior minister Lt-Col Oleg Shumilov and criminal investigations chief Lt-Col Vladimir Pakholenko fighting for their lives.
Both were hospitalised with serious shrapnel wounds after the explosion in the UAZ Patriot vehicle, according to Russian media.
A criminal probe has been launched into the attempted assassination.
It is the latest example of sabotage operations inside Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory.
Earlier in November, Ukraine admitted to assassinating pro-Russian lawmaker, Mikhail Filiponenko, in another car bombing in Luhansk.
“Yeah, it was our operation,” Andriy Cherniak, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence, told Politico.
He added that they worked with local Ukrainian partisans to plot and carry out the car bomb attack.
In September, a Russian general was seriously wounded after being given an alleged “exploding phone” by Ukraine’s secret service.
Yuri Afanasevskii, 64, his wife and son were all reportedly hospitalised following the explosion at his house also in Luhansk.
It comes amid a spate of suspected Ukrainian attacks inside both Russia and Russian-held territory.
Recent footage showed the moment a HIMARS missile hit a Russian military command and control vehicle in the annexed Donetsk region.
Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said the Russian R-149BMR military vehicle was “completely destroyed”.
Earlier this month, suspected Ukrainian drones struck deep into enemy territory and blew up a gunpowder plant and a missile factory.
In the hours after, a major explosion sent nineteen carriages of a Russian cargo train crashing off the tracks in an assumed sabotage attack.
The unexpected blast ripped up the railway line in Ryazan region, 130 miles southeast of Moscow and sent mysterious white powder – officially claimed to be “mineral fertiliser” – flying.
The rail incident was quickly labelled “sabotage” by the authorities after it appeared that this specific train was targeted.
Only days after, a Russian military base exploded into flames after yet another gunpowder plant was blasted in a second attack.
It followed with a third mystery attack on a military unit storing Putin’s prized missiles sparked a huge fire and sent hundreds fleeing.
The kamikaze drone strikes appeared to be targeting the heart of Putin’s war machine as Kyiv steps up its aerial assaults to cripple Russia’s war effort.
Ukraine rarely comments or takes responsibility for such strikes on Russian soil.
But its forces are increasingly targeting Russian military, logistics, and infrastructure sites on Putin’s home turf and in occupied territories.
It comes as Putin’s troops flounder on the battlefield and are scrambling to stop a surprise Ukraine advance on the east side of the Dnipro river.
Moscow has been forced to admit it has lost ground as Ukrainian troops claim to have advanced at least 2.5miles across the previously frozen eastern frontlines.
East2WestRecent footage showed the moment right before a HIMARS missile destroyed a Russian command and control vehicle close to the frontline[/caption]
East2WestIt locks in on the target and causes a huge explosion[/caption]
East2WestUkraine has been ramping up attacks inside Russia and in occupied Ukrainian territory[/caption]