Ukrainian officials have ridiculed Russia’s accusation that its special services were behind the killing of Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist, in a car-bomb attack.
“We don’t work in this way,” said National Security and Defence Council secretary Oleksiy Danilov.
A memorial service for Ms Dugina, 29, took place in Moscow on Tuesday.
Ms Dugina, a commentator on a Russian nationalist TV channel, died when her car blew up on the outskirts of Moscow.
Her influential father, Alexander Dugin, may have been the intended target of the attack. His expansionist ideas of a New Russia or “Novorossiya” on Ukrainian territory are said to have influenced President Vladimir Putin’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
President Putin condemned the “vile, cruel crime” and posthumously awarded Ms Dugina the Order of Courage.
Her 60-year-old father paid tribute to her as a “rising star at the start of her journey”. She was brutally murdered in front of him by Russia’s enemies, he said, and he went on to call for victory over Ukraine.
In Kyiv, the security and defence council secretary said Ukraine had nothing to do with the bombing: “We have more important tasks for our boys and girls… The FSB did this and is now suggesting that one of our people did it,” he was quoted as telling Ukrainian TV.
Presidential office adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, said Russian “propaganda lives in a fictional world”, adding that the car bombing was part of a struggle within Russia’s special services.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said it had solved the case and blamed Ukraine directly. Its claims were widely reported by state TV, and pro-Kremlin commentators called for immediate revenge.
*PHOTO: Late Darya Dugina
