Ukraine ‘tried to ASSASSINATE Putin using drone loaded with explosives’, German media claims

Ukrainian secret service agents tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin with a kamikaze drone carrying explosives – but failed after it crashed a few miles short of their target, it has been claimed.

The Ukrainian forces reportedly launched the UJ-22 drone, laden with 17 kilograms of C4 plastic explosives, from Ukraine on Sunday with the aim of reaching a newly built industrial estate near Moscow that Putin was due to visit, German newspaper Bild claims.

Bild cited a tweet by Ukrainian activist Yuriy Romanenko, who claims to have close ties to Kyiv's intelligence services, alleging that Ukrainian secret service agents had received 'information' about Putin's apparent trip to the industrial site and had decided to launch the deadly drone in an attempt to assassinate the president.

Ukrainian secret service agents tried to assassinate Vladimir Putin with a kamikaze drone laden with explosives, it has been claimed.

Bild, citing Romanenko, claims that the drone was supposed to crash into Rudnevo industrial park and kill Putin, who was reportedly expected at the site on Sunday.

Putin propagandist Paval Zarubin said on Sunday morning that Putin was planning to 'visit an industrial park in Moscow' without giving timings.

Russian state media said Putin was set to visit the Rudnevo industrial park and hold a meeting on the development of unmanned aircraft systems today.

'But the very fact that such a drone would reach a place where Putin plans to stay is a slap in the face for the Russian dictator.

Putin is said to be fearful of assassination since his invasion of Ukraine, after hit squads were sent into Ukraine to take out President Zelensky in the early days of the conflict.

'I do my job and the security officers do theirs and they are still performing quite successfully,' Putin said in the documentary The Putin Interviews.

Putin is said to travel with his own sniper squad whose role is to locate any shooters and kill them before they are able to pull the trigger on Putin.

In 2012, a former public schoolboy in Britain was arrested in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate Putin.