Kamikaze drone shot down near Putin’s secret ‘Forest Palace’ as Ukraine edges closer to blasting Vlad

A KAMIKAZE drone has been downed close to Vladimir Putin’s secret hunting palace as the war inches closer to his doorstep.

Dramatic footage shows a huge explosion over trees in the Zavidovo district of Russia‘s Tver region.

The country’s defence ministry said the drone landed on Redkinsky Experimental Plant after it was shot down – hitting a flammable liquids warehouse.

Zavidovo is home to the Rus-hunting residence of the Russian president.

Analyst Viktor Alksnis, a Soviet military tactician and politician known as the Black Colonel, said: “This is the second attempt by Ukrainian drones to hit the state residences of the President of the Russian Federation. 

“The first was undertaken on May 3, 2023, at the Kremlin.”

The Zavidovo hunting residence is one of many official and secret residences at Putin’s disposal, and it has historic significance as a retreat for Russian rulers.

It was famous in Soviet times when Kremlin leader Nitika Khrushchev entertained foreign dignitaries with vodka-fuelled hunting feasts.

Pictures show Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and Josip Tito of Yugoslavia at Zavidovo.

Putin has used the Rus palace to host foreign leaders including Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in 2013, the year before he was toppled in a people power revolution.

Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin admitted the strike in Tver region, – the same area where rebel Wagner warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash last month.

It came amid another night of intense Ukrainian drone strikes, with others targeting the Istra district of Moscow region and Kaluga region.

A drone caused explosions and a fire after hitting gas cylinders in Pavlovskaya Sloboda in Moscow region, Shot media reported.  

There was again massive disruption to flights with air space around the Russian capital closed during the nighttime drone attacks.

Some 50 flights were delayed or cancelled at Moscow’s Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo airports.

Sobyanin, one of Puitn’s allies, has now announced a massive tightening of air defences in and around Moscow. 

He revealed that new missile defence sites are being constructed in a new video.

He said: “Last year, we built the largest and most powerful defence line for our military in the special operation zone.

“This year, a lot has been done to defend Moscow from drones and terror attacks, which the Ukrainian government has been staging on almost a daily basis.”

He boasted that city officials had rushed to aid the armed forces in installing new air defences. 

“I was asked: ‘Will it be finished in a month?’ And I replied: ‘In 24 hours.’ 

“Indeed, over the past few weeks we have been creating new air defence sites. 

“Sometimes, air defence systems go into operation, sending missiles to shoot down drones, when the newly laid asphalt under them is still hot.”