Former member of Russia’s State Duma injured in targeted Kyiv drone strike

Ilya Ponomaryov, a former member of the lower house of Russia’s parliament, the State Duma, and the sole member of the chamber to oppose the Kremlin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, was injured in a drone strike on his home in exile in Kyiv, Ukrainian media outlet Obozrevatel reported on Thursday.

According to the Ukrainian police, an overnight Russian military attack on the Kyiv region resulted in damage to two private residences, injuring Ponomaryov and a married couple.

The Russian drone, which reportedly exploded just five metres from Ponomaryov’s home, was the second strike on his residence in 48 hours, Ponomaryov said on Facebook, adding that he and his security team had brushed off an almost identical strike on Wednesday as a coincidence. Ponomaryov said that he now understood that he had been targeted, noting that the Kremlin had been trying to get to him “for a long time”.

Ponomaryov, who has lived in exile in Ukraine since 2016, is widely understood to be the political head of the Freedom of Russia Legion, a Ukraine-based paramilitary organisation made up of Russian citizens opposed to the regime of Vladimir Putin. Ponomaryov has also acted as a figurehead for Russia’s pro-Ukrainian movement, advocating resistance both inside and outside Russia.

Ponomaryov described the drone strike as Russia’s fifth attempt to assassinate him, commenting subsequently on X that it had been the “most successful” attempt on his life to date and that he had been lucky to survive.