Referring to his sources in the FSO, the ex-deputy claims that Putin's helicopter made a hard landing on February 22, 2014, and the Russian president took the incident as an assassination attempt planned by foreign special services.

Ilya Ponomarev, who was a parliamentarian between 2007 and 2016 said in Kiev’s Obolonsky court hearing the high treason case against the former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych that on February 22, 2014 (the day after Yanukovych left Kiev), Russian President Vladimir Putin almost got into a plane crash.

"On the 22nd, Putin nearly got into an air disaster in Sochi. There was a hard landing while he was in a helicopter, and he took it as an assassination, attempted assassination involving foreign special services," said Ponomarev, who had been warned against giving false testimony in court. He said that he had found out about the incident with Putin’s helicopter from an officer of the Federal Security Service (FSO). 112 Ukraine TV channel broadcast the court session.

According to Ponomarev, after the hard landing, Putin had a feeling that "conspiracy was all around," and in the early hours of February 23, the president brought the subject of Crimea annexation at a private meeting. The ex-deputy said he had gotten the information from one of just four persons that were present at the meeting besides the president. Ponomarev refused to name his interlocutor to keep the person’s privacy and safety.

"My interlocutor told me that the majority of people at that meeting was against annexing the Crimea directly... Nevertheless, Putin said that the issues were to be resolved and that it was their job to find a way; he was pushing for a direct annexation of the peninsula. So, the procedure started on February 23," Ponomarev said.

RBC sent an inquiry to Dmitry Peskov, the presidential press secretary.

In January 2018, Yanukovych's former security guard Viktor Reznichenko told the Obolonsky Court that the ex-president and accompanying people had been taken from Ukraine by Mi-8 helicopters with red stars on board overnight into 23 February.

Previously, Putin himself said that Yanukovych had been evacuated from Ukraine by Russian special forces as soon as it became clear that the Ukrainian president was going to be killed.

"I invited the heads of our special services, the Defense Ministry to the Kremlin, and tasked them to save the life of the Ukrainian president, otherwise he would simply be killed. Large-caliber machine guns were put there to make it quick. We got ready to take him right from Donetsk, by land, sea and air," Putin said in Crimea. The Way Home, a documentary film released in 2015.

According to Putin, after Yanukovych left Donetsk, a helicopter group with a detachment of Russian special forces was sent to search for him and soon delivered the fugitive to Russia, from where Yanukovych got to the Crimea.