This is the shocking moment that a prominent anti-Russian activist was shot and wounded in Ukraine before his assailant was bundled to the ground and detained.
Serhii Sternenko, a vocal Moscow critic and active fundraiser for Kyiv‘s military, was subject to an assassination attempt involving a firearm, according to Ukraine’s Security Service.
Harrowing footage taken by CCTV shows a woman standing outside a residential building as the activist walks towards his car.
She immediately opens fire on Sternenko, but is apprehended seconds later by one of his companions, while the other bundles him into the vehicle before they escape.
She is then seen struggling as the man disarms and detains her. Later on, she is pictured against a wall with her hands behind her back and with her face covered.
In a post on Telegram, Sternenko wrote after the attack: ‘I was attacked. I was wounded.
‘I am grateful to the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) for their quick response. If not for them, I wouldn’t be able to write anything anymore. They quite literally saved my life.’
Harrowing footage taken by CCTV shows a woman standing outside a residential building as the activist walks towards his car
She immediately opens fire on Sternenko, but is apprehended seconds later by one of his companions
The attacker is then seen struggling as the man disarms and detains her
The SBU said: ‘Operational and investigative actions are ongoing.
‘We will inform you about the progress of the situation separately.’
Earlier today they said the detainee was a 45-year-old woman from Odessa who lived in Kyiv.
The SBU said she was ‘recruited remotely by Russian special services late last year when she was looking for a “quick way to make money” on the internet.’
After some initial trivial tasks monitoring and photographing cars, she was instructed to make a homemade explosive device as her ‘contact’ told her to move to Kyiv.
From mid-April, her instructions were to follow Sternenko and track his movements.
She was later given instructions on where to pick up a pistol and ammunition, before being told to kill the activist near his home yesterday.
‘Thanks to previous observations, the attacker already knew the make of the car and the approximate time the volunteer would leave his home,’ the SBU said.
The SBU said the detainee was a 45-year-old woman from Odessa who lived in Kyiv
The SBU said she was ‘recruited remotely by Russian special services late last year when she was looking for a “quick way to make money” on the internet’
She was later given instructions on where to pick up a pistol and ammunition, before being told to kill the activist near his home on May 1
‘As Serhiy Sternenko was leaving the house, a Russian agent fired several shots: one of the bullets hit him in the leg. The attacker was immediately detained on the spot by the Security Service of Ukraine.
‘The searches revealed a phone with evidence of working in the Russian Federation, as well as components for an improvised explosive device that she had stored in another apartment.
‘The SBU pre-trial investigation is ongoing. Comprehensive measures are being taken to establish all the circumstances of the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.’
She now faces up to 15 years in prison.
Sternenko is one of the most well-known Ukrainian activists on social media, with over two million YouTube subscribers and 840,000 Telegram followers.
The lawyer has raised funds to help supply over 550 military units, and played a key role in popularising first-person view (FPV) drones.
The Sternenko Community Foundation, set up in January, has raised enough to purchase over 176,000 drones.
Sternenko is one of the most well-known Ukrainian activists on social media, with over two million YouTube subscribers and 840,000 Telegram followers
The Sternenko Community Foundation, set up in January, has raised enough to purchase over 176,000 drones
Sternenko has been the target of four assassination attempts due to his public activism, however.
He was attacked several times during the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine which saw the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych, who was keen to develop closer ties with Russia instead of the EU.
In 2018, he was attacked by a gang who beat him with a bat, before narrowly surviving a gunman attempt months later.
In May that year, he killed one of two attackers who had come to assault him.
He was charged with premeditated murder and illegal possession of a weapon, but the case was dropped in 2023.
