The house of Russian oppositionist Ilya Ponomarev in the Kiev region was partially destroyed after a suicide drone of the Shahed type struck it on the night of August 1, OBOZ.UA reports . He himself was wounded, but his life is not in danger.
According to the publication's sources, the drone detonated five meters from the front door of the house. It is noted that on July 31, three drones were recorded flying near Ponomarev's plot, but they were shot down by air defense, fell 50-100 meters from the house and did not cause any damage.
Ponomarev is "safe and protected" and the Kiev police have launched an investigation. He himself wrote on Twitter that today is his "second birthday" and also noted that this was the fifth attempt on his life, "the most unconventional and successful." "But screw them!" Ponomarev concluded.
As Ilya Ponomarev told The Insider, his house was badly damaged, and it is now impossible to live there, since the roof was blown off. He emphasized that he is not going to leave Ukraine and will stay in the country until victory, and "if they defeat us, then we will die." The attack on his house using drones, according to him, shows how much the Russian authorities want to get to him. He noted that they could not get to him in other ways, all the "traditional methods" did not work, so they decided to get rid of him in this way:
"If Russia attaches the same importance to me as Israel attaches to the chairman of Hamas, that's great. I think we can be proud of that. I think we need to increase our personal attacks inside the Russian Federation as much as possible. And this attack is a powerful argument that I will use in Kyiv, Washington, and other capitals."
Ponomarev, who lives in Ukraine and has received citizenship there, was arrested in absentia by a Russian court in August 2022, and was later put on the wanted list. It was previously known that cases had been opened against the former deputy under articles on "fakes" about the Russian army and justification of terrorism. Also in February 2024, the FSB opened several new cases against him, which were combined into one proceeding. Ilya Ponomarev is associated with the "Freedom of Russia" legion, a unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in which, allegedly, Russians are fighting on the side of Ukraine.
