Russia accuses Ukraine of killing Darya Dugina

Russia has accused Ukrainian “special services” of carrying out a car bombing that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of an influential Russian ultra-nationalist who has backed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv denied involvement in the attack on Monday, with Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak calling the accusation “propaganda”.

Dugina, a 29-year-old commentator with a nationalist Russian TV channel, died on Saturday when a remotely-controlled explosive device planted in her Toyota Land Cruiser blew up as she was driving on the outskirts of Moscow, authorities said.

Russian media reported her father, Alexander Dugin, who has backed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, switched cars with his daughter shortly before the blast.

Dugin — a philosopher, writer and political theorist who some in the West have dubbed “Putin’s brain” — is believed by some to have been the intended target.

In a statement on Monday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), the main successor to the KGB, said the “crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services”.

The FSB said a Ukrainian citizen, Natalya Vovk, carried out the killing and then fled to Estonia.

The FSB said Vovk and her 12-year-old daughter arrived in Russia in July and spent a month preparing the attack by renting an apartment in the same housing block and researching Dugina’s lifestyle.

Agencies