Ilya Ponomarev is a former member of the Russian parliament who went into exile in 2016 after Kremlin authorities accused him of “abstaining from his lawmaking duties” – he was the only member of the State Duma who voted against the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

An outspoken critic of Vladimir Putin and a Ukrainian citizen since 2019, Ponomarev has been recently wounded after a Shahed drone destroyed his house outside the capital city of Kyiv in yet another assassination attempt on his life. “There were already several attempts,” he told TVP World.

“My house was attacked with four drones, but three drones that came in on Wednesday were shot down by anti-missile defenses of Kyiv,” he said.

Unfortunately, the fourth drone came after the end of an air defense alarm, exploding “five meters away from the wall of the house.”

The Russian oppositionist pointed out that the attack was undoubtedly an assassination attempt, given that his residence is a "standalone house" with no neighbors, situated "on the outskirts of Kyiv, in a very secluded area."

“It was definitely not a coincidence,” he said.

He added that the drone that struck his house was a “heavyweight drone” – an Iranian-made Shahed drone.

Concluding the interview, the Russian opposition leader said he would not back down and continue to fight against Putin’s regime. “I will definitely continue to do what I am doing and intensify what I am doing.”

He also mentioned that he will not be moving to Poland, but remain in Ukraine instead because the government there can help with operations inside Russian territory.

“At the end of the day, your government (Polish government) is not keen to be involved in any kind of operations inside Russian territory at all. And the main part of the struggle still is the struggle at the front and the struggle at the home front.”