Russia accuses Ukraine of killing Kremlin ideologues daughter Darya Dugina

Russia's FSB security services on Monday accused Ukraine's secret services of killing Darya Dugina, Kremlin ideologue Alexander Dugin's daughter, in a car bomb attack near Moscow. Dugin is an outspoken ultranationalist intellectual and a vocal supporter of the Kremlin's offensive in Ukraine and was supposedly the likely target of the attack.  "The crime was prepared and committed by Ukrainian special services," the FSB said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies. 

On the other hand, Ukraine has already denied involvement in the fatal attack and has described it as an imperial-style war of conquest mounted by Russia. Ukrainian presidential adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, today said that Kyiv authorities weren't behind the car bombing.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin also expressed his "sincere condolences" following her death and termed it a "vile crime".

"A vile, cruel crime ended the life of Darya Dugina, a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart, kind, loving, sympathetic and open," Putin said in a message to Dugina's family released by the Kremlin. 

Alexander also released his first public statement on his daughter's death, and said she had been savagely killed before his own eyes by Ukraine.

"Our hearts are not simply thirsting for revenge or retribution," Dugin wrote. "We only need our victory (against Ukraine). My daughter has sacrificed her young life on the altar of victory. So please win!"

The FSB security service identified the attacker as a Ukrainian woman born in 1979 whose name is Natalia Vovk. It added that she fled to Estonia after the attack. Russian news websites linked her to Ukraine's security services and accused her of being a member of the Azov battalion, a unit of Ukraine's army that Russia has designated a terrorist group.

The woman and her teenage daughter had arrived in Russia in July and spent a month preparing for the attack by renting an apartment in the same housing block as Dugina, the FSB was quoted as saying. It said she had driven a Mini Cooper around Moscow which she used to spy on Dugina and for which she had three different sets of licence plates to avoid detection.

Russian law enforcement agencies had placed the Ukrainian woman on the country's wanted list, the TASS news agency reported, with Moscow seeking her extradition from Estonia.