Ponomarev told TVP World that he and his wife had been hospitalized following a drone strike which had “destroyed” his home near Kyiv in the early hours of Thursday morning.

In a text message to the TV station, the leading Russian opposition politician to Putin said: “There was an assassination attempt on me tonight, drone attack, quite serious. My house is destroyed.”

The 48-year-old added that he and his wife “are just finishing the medical procedures, a lot of minor injuries, but they require treatment.”

He later posted a photo online from the hospital of his bloodied face and chest.

According to the Ukrainian news outlet Obozrevatel, the Russian Geran-2 drone used in Thursday morning’s attack exploded five meters from the politician's house.

The incident comes after three other drones are said to have hit an area close to his house on July 31.

Sources told Obozrevatel that the two attacks in succession could mean that Ponomarev had been deliberately targeted by Moscow.

Ponomarev has long been a thorn in the Kremlin’s side. After voting against Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014, the politician fled to the U.S. before moving to Ukraine where he gained citizenship in 2019.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of 2022, he joined the Free Russia Legion made up of political opponents of the Kremlin, former POWs and Russian defectors.

In January 2023, Moscow added him to its list of terrorists and extremists, and early this year charged him with treason.