Ukraine rejects blame for car-bomb attack on Putin ally, claims Russian agents did it to increase support for war

• A Ukrainian security official accused Russia of killing Darya Dugina, the daughter of a Putin ally.
• Oleksiy Danilov accused Russia of planning to attack its own civilians in false-flag style events.

Ukraine accused Russia of the car-bomb attack in Moscow which killed the daughter of a prominent supporter of President Vladimir Putin, painting it as a false-flag operation meant to boost support for the war.

Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, alleged on Monday that Russian FSB forces were behind the death of 26-year-old Darya Dugina.

He said, without providing evidence, that her death was part of a wider Russian plan to organize terrorist attacks with "mass casualties among civilians," in order to incite "public mobilization" against Ukraine.

Dugina was killed by a car bomb on Saturday, according to Russian state-controlled news agency TASS. The agency reported a family friend as saying the car belonged to Dugina's father, Aleksandr Dugin, and that he was the likely target.

Dugin is an influential Russian nationalist philosopher whose work has provided the underpinnings of Putin's rationale for war in Ukraine, earning him the nickname "Putin's brain." Dugina also supported the war, running a pro-Kremlin disinformation website, according to The Washington Post.

On Monday, Russia's FSB accused Ukrainian secret services of organizing the hit. This was denied by Michael Polodyak, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Monday.

Later that day, Danilov went further, saying that the attack is the first in a series of Russian false-flag style operations designed to boost flagging domestic approval of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Danilov told Channel 24 on Monday, per Ukrainian newspaper Pravda: "We have nothing to do with undermining this lady — this is the work of the Russian special services."

"The FSB did this thing — and now it will indicate that one of ours did it," he said, per Pravda.

Dugin and his daughter had begun to criticize how drawn-out the war was becoming, the paper reported him as saying. Insider wasn't able to confirm their past statements on the war.

On Tuesday, Danilov repeated his accusation that Russia carried out the attack, writing on Twitter: "Support for the war is falling in Russia. The Kremlin needs public mobilization. The FSB is expected to organize a series of terrorist attacks in Russian cities with mass casualties among civilians. Dugina is the first in this series.

"Unlike Russia, Ukraine is not at war with the civilian population."

The allegation came after the FSB claimed to have "solved" the murder, attributing it to a Ukrainian citizen, Natalia Vovk, who it said was under the orders of Ukrainian secret services and had fled to Estonia.

Ilya Ponomarev, A dissident former Russian MP living in Ukraine, also floated the theory that the attack was committed by a Russian group called the National Republican Army, The Guardian reported.

The attack came a few days before Ukraine's independence day on August 24. Zelenskyy warned on Saturday that Russian attacks might escalate ahead of the celebrations.