Ukraine braces for intensified attacks after
Moscow car bomb killing
Kyiv denies any involvement in death of daughter of
ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin
Dan Sabbagh
in Kyiv and Luke Harding
Sun 21 Aug
2022 20.30 BST
Ukraine is
bracing itself for an intensification of Russian missile attacks to coincide
with its independence day on Wednesday in the aftermath of the car-bomb killing
of the daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue.
The
country’s military warned that Russia had put five cruise missile-bearing
warships and submarines out in the Black Sea and that Moscow was positioning
air defence systems in Belarus. Large gatherings have been banned in Kyiv for
four days from Monday.
Overnight
on Saturday, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy had warned that “Russia
may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel” this
week as the country celebrates its 31st anniversary of independence.
The
country’s armed forces also warned on Sunday night that Russia had closed the
airspace in the Russian border regions of Lipetsk, Voronezh and regions between
22 and 25 August.
Tensions
between the two warring countries were at risk of heightening further after the
killing of Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator
Alexander Dugin, on the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night.
Investigations
into the killing were continuing, although some Russian hawks tried – without
evidence – to blame Ukraine, which in turn denied any involvement in the
attack, saying it was “not a terrorist state”.
On Sunday
night, a former member of Russia’s Duma now based in Kyiv who was expelled for
anti-Kremlin activities claimed that a previously unknown group of Russian
partisans were behind the attack.
Ilya
Ponomarev claimed the deadly explosion was the work of the National Republican
Army, which he said was an underground group working inside Russia dedicated to
overthrowing the Putin regime.
“This
action, like many other partisan actions carried out on the territory of Russia
in recent months, was carried out by the National Republican Army (NRA),”
Ponomarev said, speaking on his YouTube channel. The Guardian has not verified
the authenticity of the claims.
Concern
about whether Russia would step up its attacks around Ukraine’s independence
day had been in the air for some time and predated the Moscow car bomb. But it
could be used as an additional pretext by Moscow.
Prominent
Russian hawks blaming Kyiv for the car bomb called it “an assassination
attempt” and demanded that the Kremlin respond by targeting government
officials in Kyiv.
“Decision-making
centres!! Decision-making centres!!!” wrote Margarita Simonyan, the
editor-in-chief of the state-funded RT television station, reposting a call to
bomb the headquarters of the Ukrainian SBU intelligence agency.
Maria
Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian foreign ministry, said that if a
Ukrainian link was confirmed and was verified by the competent authorities,
“then we should talk about the policy of state terrorism implemented by the
Kyiv regime”.
If the car
bombing is definitively tied to the war, it would mark the first time since
February that the violence unleashed on Ukraine has reached the Russian
capital, touching the family of a Kremlin ally near one of Moscow’s most
exclusive districts.
Kyiv
strongly denied the allegations. “Ukraine has absolutely nothing to do with
this, because we are not a criminal state like Russia, or a terrorist one at
that,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskiy, said in remarks broadcast on
television.
Keir Giles,
a Russia expert at the Chatham House thinktank, said it was unclear whether
Ponomarev’s claims about the NRA were true: “How the Kremlin will respond
depends on whether this is a genuine resistance movement or a Russia-style
complex conspiracy of smoke and mirrors – and we may not know for some time
yet.”
The blast
occurred shortly after Dugina left the Tradition cultural festival at an estate
where her father had given a lecture. The two were expected to leave together,
but instead got into different cars, a friend said.
Five
minutes later, a bomb exploded in the car Dugina was driving, killing her
instantly. Witnesses said debris was thrown all over the road as the car was
engulfed in flames before crashing into a fence.
Dugin is
known for developing an extreme rightwing view of Russia’s place in the world
and had previously advocated violence against Ukraine, while his daughter held
similar views. He has been described as a “Russian fascist” and is a well-known
conspiracy theorist.
Some claim
he helped shape the Russian president’s expansionist foreign policy. But the
influence of Dugin over Putin remains a subject for speculation, with many
insiders saying his sway over the Kremlin was minimal.
Investigators
believed the bombing was “premeditated and of a contract nature”, said
Alexander Bastrykin, the head of the investigative committee, the main federal
investigating authority in Russia.
Andrey
Krasnov, a friend of Dugina and the head of the Russian Horizon social
movement, confirmed the reports, according to the news agency Tass. He said the
bomb could have been intended for her father.
“This was
the father’s vehicle. Darya was driving another car, but she took his car
today, while Alexander went a different way. He returned, he was at the site of
the tragedy. As far as I understand, Alexander or probably they together were
the target,” Krasnov said.
However,
the independent Russian news agency Agentstvo reported that leaked government
databases showed the car was registered to Darya, not her father. Footage on
social media appeared to show him at the scene in a state of distress.
Investigators
said they had opened a murder case and would be carrying out forensic
examinations to try to determine what happened. They said they were considering
“all versions” when it came to working out who was responsible.
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