TWO of Vladimir Putin's security officials were reportedly blown up in a brazen car bombing in occupied Ukraine.
Dramatic footage shows an inferno engulfing the car after both the senior officials escaped with life-threatening injuries.
The car bombing in the Russian-held eastern city of Luhansk left deputy interior minister Lt-Col Oleg Shumilov and criminal investigations chief Lt-Col Vladimir Pakholenko fighting for their lives.
Both were taken to hospital with serious shrapnel wounds after the explosion in the UAZ Patriot vehicle, according to Russian media.
A criminal probe has been launched into the attempted assassination, with suspicion falling on forces loyal to Kyiv.
The latest car bombing came as footage emerged today of the moment a HIMARS missile hit a Russian military command and control vehicle in the annexed Donetsk region.
Ukrainian official Anton Gerashchenko said the Russian R-149BMR military vehicle was “completely destroyed”.
There has been a spate of suspected Ukrainian attacks and sabotage operations inside both Russia and Russian-held territory.
Earlier in November, Ukraine admitted to assassinating pro-Russian lawmaker, Mikhail Filiponenko, in another car bombing in Luhansk.
“Yeah, it was our operation,” Andriy Cherniak, a representative of Ukraine's military intelligence, told
He added that they worked with local Ukrainian partisans to plot and carry out the car bomb attack.
In September, a Russian general was seriously wounded after being given an alleged "exploding phone" by Ukraine's secret service.
Yuri Afanasevskii, 64, his wife and son were all reportedly wounded in the explosion at his house in Luhansk.
Earlier this month, suspected Ukrainian drones struck deep into enemy territory and blew up a gunpowder plant and a missile factory.
In the hours after, a major explosion sent nineteen carriages of a Russian cargo train crashing off the tracks in an assumed sabotage attack.
The unexpected blast ripped up the railway line in Ryazan region, 130 miles southeast of Moscow and sent mysterious white powder - officially claimed to be "mineral fertiliser" - flying.
The rail incident was quickly labelled “sabotage” by the authorities after it appeared that this specific train was targeted.
Only days after, a Russian military base exploded into flames after yet another gunpowder plant was blasted in a second attack.
It followed with a third mystery attack on a military unit storing Putin's prized missiles sparked a huge fire and sent hundreds fleeing.
The kamikaze drone strikes appeared to be targeting the heart of Putin's war machine as Kyiv steps up its aerial assaults to cripple Russia's war effort.
Ukraine rarely comments or takes responsibility for such strikes on Russian soil.
But its forces are increasingly targeting Russian military, logistics, and infrastructure sites on Putin's home turf and in occupied territories.
It comes as Putin's troops flounder on the battlefield and are scrambling to stop a surprise Ukraine advance on the east side of the Dnipro river.
Moscow has been forced to admit it has lost ground as Ukrainian troops claim to have advanced at least 2.5miles across the previously frozen frontlines.
