Report: Ukraine used drone aircraft in failed assassination attempt against Putin

Ukrainian suicide drone aircraft crossed Russia frontier and eluded air defense network, report claims, but crashed before reaching planned appearance by Putin in outskirts of Moscow.

By World Israel News Staff

The Ukrainian military planned to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin using a suicide drone aircraft, according to a report Thursday, which claimed that the plot came close to succeeding.

On Thursday, the German newspaper Bild reported that the Ukrainian Secret Service made an attempt Putin’s life with a drone, but failed when the drone crashed before reaching him.

The information was reportedly obtained from a recent tweet by Yuriy Romanenko, the Chief Editor of the Ukrainian website Khvilya, who has connections to Ukrainian intelligence sources.

Romanenko claimed that Ukraine used a UJ-22 drone, which has a range of up to 500 miles (800 kilometers).

The unmanned aircraft was loaded with 35 pounds (17 kilograms) of explosives, and was intended to crash into the Rudnevo industrial park near Moscow while Putin visited the site. Upon impact, the explosives would be detonated, killing the Russian leader.

According to the report, the drone successfully crossed the frontier from Ukraine into Russia, and even managed to evade Russia’s air defenses, yet failed to reach its intended target.

The drone is said to have fallen not far from the industrial park, with Russian media outlets confirming a drone crash in a village east of Moscow, near the Rudnevo industrial park.

Photographs purportedly of the drone show M112-type explosive charges, used by the American and Canadian militaries. While there has been no comment from the Russian side, videos uploaded to Twitter on Sunday might show possible preparations for Putin’s visit.

Earlier this year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky predicted that Putin would be assassinated in the near future, while intimating that the plot could be hatched by Putin’s own inner circle.

“There will certainly be a moment when the fragility of Putin’s regime is felt in Russia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told journalist Dmytro Komarov in a documentary.

“Then carnivores will eat a carnivore. It is very important, and they will need a reason to justify this. They will remember. They will find a reason to kill a killer.”