Russian officials arrested an alleged Kyiv agent who they said tried to poison a high-ranking official.

The man was reportedly a local resident in Donetsk Oblast who was allegedly recruited online by Ukrainian intelligence to carry out the plan.

He allegedly posed as the friend of a woman named Polina, whom the official had met on a dating app and who supposedly wanted to send him a gift. However, the present turned out to be two packs of British beer that officials claimed had been laced with a mixture of toxic substances.

Footage shows the alleged moment the agent received the liquor intended to kill the Russian official. The moment he was about to hand the beers to the officer was also captured on drone camera before Russian officials arrived and restrained him.

Some of the bottles were labelled Samuel Smith, a British beer brand based in North Yorkshire.

Officials said laboratory analysis found the beer contained a mixture of colchicine and tertbutylbicyclophosphate, the latter described as an analogue of the VX nerve agent banned under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention.

The Russian Federal Security Service said the mixture would have caused a painful death within 20 minutes if consumed.

The intended victim reportedly said he had met someone identifying herself as Polina on a dating application several months earlier. He said she later moved their conversations to Telegram and claimed she wanted to send him a gift via a friend.

The Russian officer said: 'After a few days, an unknown man called me and said he had a gift from Polina. I went outside, met him, and he gave me a bag.'

The suspect allegedly told officers that Ukrainian intelligence had promised him 5,000 USD (3,900 GBP) for the killing. He said he had earlier collected two tubes dropped by a drone and kept them at home before being instructed to pass on the poisoned beer.

The Russian Federal Security Service said it has detained the suspect and prevented the poisoning attempt.