A Russian lawmaker who is loyal to President Vladimir Putin claims he was the target of a failed assassination attempt in which his car was blown up as he drove through an occupied city in Ukraine.
Denis Kharitonov, 44, shared a video on Telegram on Saturday showing his vehicle engulfed by flames after it exploded earlier this year as he helped the war in Ukraine.
He noted how he had previously shared online how he was using his “own car to carry out duties in the zone of the special military operation.”
“Today, while performing another duty, [the vehicle] exploded and burned to the ground,” he wrote along with the footage showing black smoke billowing from the completely engulfed vehicle.
Kharitonov, a representative from the Astrakhan region who said he was deployed to Ukraine after joining the army earlier this year, did not say whether or not he was in the car when it exploded, nor did the lawmaker provide details on where the incident occurred.
He also suggested that he had been the target of previous assassination attempts, writing, “It’s been a while since I’ve been blown up in my car.”
Kharitonov, however, claimed he was able to save documents from the burning car that belonged to a “seriously wounded comrade” whose family he was visiting to deliver the papers to.
Kharitonov added that the case was being investigated by Russian officials.
The lawmaker’s claims could not be immediately verified, and Ukraine has yet to respond to the allegations.
Kyiv has previously taken responsibility for strikes that have targeted pro-Putin figures following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Last year, Ukrainian officials confirmed the death of Mikhail Filiponenko, a deputy in the pro-Putin Lugansk regional parliament, after he was hit by a car bomb explosion.
Filiponenko was targeted as a “war criminal” and “executioner” who ran “torture camps” in Luhansk where prisoners of war and even civilians suffered “inhumane” treatment, according to Ukraine’s military spy agency.