Two of Vladimir Putin’s senior security officials have reportedly suffered serious injuries after a car bombing.
Deputy interior minister Lt-Col Oleg Shumilov and criminal investigations chief Lt-Col Vladimir Pakholenko are both claimed to have suffered serious injuries in the incident.
Footage supposedly from the scene shows an inferno raging from the UAZ Patriot vehicle after it blew up.
According to local reports, both of Putin’s officials escaped from the burning car but are in hospital with severe shrapnel wounds.
Putin's officials were said to be injured in the incident
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Now, a criminal probe has been launched into what officials believe to be an assassination attempt.
The incident took place on November 16 at a checkpoint in Kreminna.
Lt Col Pakholenko was said to be driving the vehicle when the incident happened.
Pakholenko had previously worked for the Ukrainian ministry of internal affairs.
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It follows a fire in the village of Kotluban near Volgograd
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He later switched his allegiance to the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), which is led by Russia, in 2014.
The explosion the latest in a string of sabotage operations inside Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia.
According to news outlet Astra, the former head of the LPR police, Mykhailo Filipenko, was also killed by a car bomb in Luhansk on November 8.
The attack will also serve as yet another blow to the Russian president with several key positions coming under attack in recent weeks.
On Thursday, a ‘kamikaze drone strike’ destroyed a missile base just days after Ukraine reportedly hit a Russian gunpowder factory and missile plant
Nearby residents in the village of Kotluban near Volgograd said they heard a kamikaze drone before the unit went up in flames.
They added there was a fear of the fire spreading, with some residents fleeing their homes.
Volgograd region governor Andrei Bocharov said the cause of the fire was being probed.
