Russia blames Ukraine for deadly Moscow blast

The car bombing outside Moscow on Saturday night, which took the life of journalist Darya Dugina, was orchestrated and carried out by Ukrainian secret services, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has said.

Dugina was killed while returning from a conservative family festival held in Moscow Region. She was the daughter of anti-Western author and political commentator Aleksandr Dugin. Like her father, she was known for her vocal support of the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

In a statement on Monday, the FSB said that Ukrainian national Natalya Vovk, born in 1979, carried out the bombing.

According to the FSB, Vovk arrived in Russia with her teenage daughter on July 23 and rented an apartment in the building in Moscow where the victim also lived.

Vovk and her daughter attended the ‘Tradition’ festival on Saturday, where Dugin was giving a lecture and his daughter was present, the FSB said.

Investigators stated earlier that a bomb was planted under the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado SUV Dugina used to leave the event. According to the FSB, Vovk detonated the bomb remotely, killing Dugina as she was driving on a highway. She then left with her daughter for Estonia on Sunday.

The FSB added that Vovk used a car with a license plate from the Donetsk People’s Republic when entering Russia, but replaced it with a Kazakhstan license plate when driving in Moscow, and a Ukrainian plate when crossing into Estonia.

An ID card allegedly owned by Vovk was first published online in April. The document with a photo of a woman in uniform describes her as a member of Ukraine’s National Guard. 

The authenticity of the ID card has not been confirmed.

According to unconfirmed reports, she serves in the Azov Battalion, a unit of the National Guard, whose ranks include fighters with openly nationalist and neo-Nazi views.

In the document purportedly belonging to Vovk, she is listed as Natalya Shaban. According to the FSB, Shaban was the last name Vovk’s daughter used when entering Russia in July.