Ukraine mocks Russia's claim of Kyiv hand in Dugina's death; 'living in fictional world'

A senior Ukrainian official has issued the first response to the Russian Security Service's accusation that Kyiv was involved in the killing of Darya Dugina. Taking to Twitter, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that 'Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world", and that that "vipers" in Russian special services had initiated an "intraspecies fight". Mocking the allegation, Mykhailo Podolyak remarked how "surprisingly" Russian security service officials did not find the Estonian visa at the scene of the explosion.

Podolyak tweeted, "Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world: Ukrainian woman and her 12-year-old child were "assigned" responsible for blowing up the car of propagandist Dugina. Surprisingly, they did not find the "Estonian visa" on the spot. Vipers in Russia's special services started an intraspecies fight." The statement comes after the Russian FSB claimed that Ukraine was behind the assassination of Darya Dugina. 

Podolyak had previously denied the charges on August 21 and had stated that Ukraine is "not a criminal state, unlike Russia, and definitely not a terrorist state." In a tweet on August 21, he had called Russia's attempt to blame Ukraine for "terrorist attacks" at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in Olenivka and for the car explosion in the Moscow suburbs "useless." Notably, Darya Dugina died on Saturday, August 20, in a car explosion on the outskirts of Moscow.

Russian FSB blames Ukraine for assassination of Darya Dugina 

Meanwhile, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) has blamed Ukraine's special services for the assassination of Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin's daughter Darya Dugina. The FSB has claimed that a Ukrainian woman named Natalya Pavlovna Vovk was "perpetrator" who arrived in Russia on July 23, Sputnik reported. She used a Mini Cooper to enter Russia and rented an apartment in the same building where Dugina lived to gather details regarding her lifestyle.

According to the FSB, Natalya Vovk used three number plates in her vehicles which included the plate of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. On August 20, the alleged perpetrator and her 12-years-old daughter took part in the Tradition literary and music festival which Darya Dugina attended as the honoured guest, it said. Vovk left Russia and moved to Estonia after "carrying out the controlled explosion of the Toyota Land Cruiser Prado" which was carrying Darya Dugina. 

Image: AP