
Vladimir Putin assassination fears highlighted as bodyguard spotted with device
Vladimir Putin's fear of assassination has perhaps never been more apparent after a seasoned analyst spotted a key detail on one of the Russian despot's bodyguards.
Putin, 72, has reportedly long feared assassination, and is said to have employed a series of measures over the years - including allegedly deploying masked servicemen as body doubles. His fears are said to have surged after launching his "special military operation" invasion of Ukraine, with potential Ukrainian retaliation said to be one of the reasons he has refused to meet for bilateral ceasefire negotiations with Volodymyr Zelensky.
Now, a Ukrainian analyist claims to have spotted a key detail on one member of the Russian despot's security detail highlighting his fears of assassination from the air.
The agent, dressed in a suit and black coat, appears to be holding a 'fire and forget' Yolka - used to down incoming explosive unmanned planes. With two hands on the device, the ready-to-use kinetic interceptor is only partially hidden in a bag.
The footage was reportedly shot at Russia 's Victory Day parade on Red Square in May but has only now come to light. The secret serviceman can be seen walking close to Putin while the Russian president speaks with military personnel. The device was spotted and analysed by Serhii Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian military analyst.
It's believed the aim is to protect the Russian dictator from a potential Ukrainian drone strike while out in public. Another Russian agent is seen carrying Putin's suspected nuclear briefcase, used to launch an atomic strike on enemies.
During the Red Square event, for the first time a special canopy was installed above the main grandstand — seen as offering protection against Ukrainian drones. The Yolka, a compact, quadcopter-style drone with fixed X-shaped wings and kinetic targeting capabilities, is used to destroy military drones and is now being used by Putin himself as an extra security measure.
The device autonomously homes in on a target deploying AI-enabled optical tracking. Having intercepted the target after being manually shot by a person at ground level, it either causes the drone to explode or brings it down.
It was fear of Ukrainian drone strikes on Putin that led to him cancelling the usual annual full-scale warship parade in the Gulf of Finland marking Russia's Navy Day on Sunday. Instead, more modest events were staged with Putin's involvement. The Kremlin said the decision had been taken for 'security reasons' amid the war with Ukraine.
It comes as US President Donald Trump set a new deadline for Putin to come to the table for ceasefire talks with Ukraine. Trump had originally given the Russian tyrant 50 days - which would expire on September 3. But speaking ahead of talks with Keir Starmer in Scotland on Monday, he said he would shorten the timeline to 10-12 days - which would make the deadline almost a month sooner, between August 7-9.
Trump repeated his criticism of Putin for talking about ending the war but continuing to bombard Ukrainian civilians. "He talks. We have such nice conversations and such respectful and nice conversations and people die the following night with a missile going into a town," Trump said. He added: "And I say, that's not the way to do it. I'm disappointed in President Putin."

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Scottish Sun
a minute ago
- Scottish Sun
Donald Trump orders nuclear submarines to be moved near Russia as he blasts ‘foolish' nuke threat from Putin crony
MOVING IN Donald Trump orders nuclear submarines to be moved near Russia as he blasts 'foolish' nuke threat from Putin crony Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) PRESIDENT Donald Trump has ordered that two nuclear submarines be positioned near Russia following stern threats from Vladimir Putin's comrade. The move by the commander-in-chief comes after former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned the United States of Moscow's nuclear arsenal. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 1 President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media on board Air Force One on Tuesday Credit: Reuters More to follow... For the latest news on this story, keep checking back at The U.S. Sun, your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, sports news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures, and must-see videos. Like us on Facebook at TheSunUS and follow us on X at @TheUSSun


Reuters
2 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump orders nuclear submarines moved near Russia
Aug 1 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he had ordered two nuclear submarines to be positioned in regions near Russia in response to threats from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "I have ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions, just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that," Trump said in a post on Truth Social.


New Statesman
2 minutes ago
- New Statesman
2,000 Metres to Andriivka is film-making at its rawest
Ukrainian servicemen walk through a charred forest at the front line a few kilometres from Andriivka. Photo by Mstyslav Chernov/AP Mstyslav Chernov's last film, 20 Days in Mariupol, won him multiple awards including the Oscar for Best Documentary, as well as a Pulitzer Prize. It remains deeply traumatising to watch, a day-by-day account of the Russian assault on the city and its inhabitants, showing the horrific destruction of life and the injuries suffered by people who can scarcely comprehend what is happening to them. Chernov was in Mariupol as a journalist, filing footage for news reports whenever he was able to get online. Only afterwards was the material turned into that brilliantly edited feature. He was determined not only to document what he was witnessing but to make it last. 'If you want something to stay in history, to have a persistent impact, then you have to go with a film language,' he has said. If 20 Days in Mariupol was released in summer 2023, at the same time as Barbie and Oppenheimer, it now seems the significant film of that year. While promoting 20 Days in Mariupol internationally, Chernov was returning to Ukraine to make his new film, 2,000 Metres to Andriivka, which differs from its predecessor in being conceived as a film project from the off, and in showing not civilians being massacred but Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the ultimately unsuccessful counteroffensive in the second year of the war. Andriivka is, or was, a tiny village of just 74 people, part of Bakhmut region in the Donetsk oblast of eastern Ukraine, captured by Russia in 2022. Retaking it became a key Ukrainian objective. The only route left to the village was a narrow, 2,000-metre strip of forest between heavily mined fields. In September 2023, after three months of deadly close-quarters fighting, the Third Assault Brigade raised the Ukrainian flag in Andriivka, but found practical difficulty in doing so, since the village was entirely destroyed. Then, in 2024, the Russians recaptured whatever remained. Much as 20 Days in Mariupol was structured by a sequence of days, 2,000 Metres to Andriivka is ordered by measurements of distance achieved towards the village over three months of fighting, an almost thriller-like device that clarifies events without alleviating the tension. The footage that Chernov has gathered is extraordinary. With drone footage providing overviews, much of the filming is by the director himself and his colleagues, boldly going out right alongside the soldiers. But about a third of the film is directly from the GoPro bodycams (in fact, mainly helmet-cams) that the soldiers wear in the field anyway for later analysis, giving a 360-degree field of vision in astonishingly sharp detail, which can then be re-framed. We see what they see, or at least what they are in the middle of, in an unprecedented way. It's the most immersive filming possible. Alex Garland effectively adapted this technique for his remarkable combat film Warfare earlier this year, made in collaboration with the Iraq War veteran, Ray Mendoza. But that was a dramatisation. This is real. What's confounding about what we see is that, despite the use of screens and drones, so much of the actual fighting – taking place in foxholes, using grenades, mortars and machine guns – could as well be the First World War. The burned earth and blasted tree stumps look like Paul Nash's hellscapes. It could be Verdun. But we are seeing it as has not been possible before. It is what John Keegan was attempting in The Face of Battle, fully delivered. Subscribe to The New Statesman today from only £8.99 per month Subscribe In an opening scene, a young soldier, whom we have just seen joking ('Film how beautiful I am!'), is severely injured, all limbs shattered – and later we see his funeral. But, in his grave voiceover, Chernov comments repeatedly that many others of those we see have also died since being filmed. One 46-year-old volunteer chats about roll-ups vs other cigarettes, needing to make the well at his house deeper, his wife's pleas for him to come back, whatever it takes. 'I haven't done anything yet and here I am on camera,' he says. Five months later, Chernov tells us, he died in hospital from his injuries. In the final scene, at a roll-call, the soldiers all call out 'Present!' to a long list of call signs. They are, we realise, the names of their dead. In an excellent interview for the podcast Inside the Arthouse, Chernov, originally a stills photographer and novelist, laments that he is making films about war, when what he would like to be filming is cheetahs, pandas, penguins. But it is necessary, he says. 'The war wipes out everything, everything. Nothing survives it. And yet the very thing that survives is a memory. The question is, how do you keep it?' He also admits that his films are painful to watch. 'It is very, very hard to bring people to cinema and step into the warzone and suffer.' Watching these two documentaries back-to-back left me sapped, in a not dissimilar way from first seeing Elem Klimov's Come and See (1985). Yet they are necessary viewing, unlike any other contemporary cinema. [See also: With 'Chief of War', Hawaii gets the 'Game of Thrones' treatment] Related