The automotive bomb that killed hardline TV commentator Daria Dugina close to Moscow was the work of a Ukrainian woman who fled to Estonia after the blast, the Russian safety service mentioned Monday, lower than two days after the incident.
“The crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services,” the Russians mentioned in a press release outlining their findings on Saturday night time’s explosion.
Ukraine presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak dismissed the declare, tweeting that Russian propaganda “lives in a fictional world.” Estonian officers launched a press release saying, “We have not received any official requests for information from Russia concerning this matter.”
Dugina was the daughter of outstanding ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, a robust supporter of the invasion who has for years referred to as for Russian annexation of Ukraine and who may need been the blast’s supposed goal. Russian media quoted witnesses as saying the SUV Dugina was driving belonged to Dugin and that he had determined on the final minute to journey in one other automobile. Father and daughter have been sanctioned by the U.S.
Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to Dugina’s household for the “cruel and treacherous” killing and posthumously awarded her the Order of Courage, one of many nation’s highest medals.
Angry Russians demanded assaults on Ukrainian authorities buildings, elevating the prospect of escalating hostilities within the practically six-month battle, and Ukrainian authorities staff had been advised to do business from home this week. The Kyiv navy administration has banned mass occasions within the metropolis by means of Thursday because of the “high probability” of rocket assaults.
Russian security services said suspect Natalia Vovk arrived in Moscow a month in the past together with her 12-year-old daughter and rented an house within the constructing the place Dugina lived. On the day of the blast, Vovk and her daughter attended the literary and music competition Tradition, the place Dugina was an honorary visitor. After the remote-controlled explosion, Vovk and her daughter fled by means of the Pskov Region to Estonia, the safety providers mentioned.
Saturday was Estonia’s Restoration of Independence Day, marking 31 years because the finish of Russia’s occupation of the nation of 1.3 million individuals.
Latest developments:
►Almost 9,000 Ukrainian “heroes” have died within the battle, Valeriy Zaluzhny, commander-in-chief of the Ukraine navy, mentioned Monday. Russia has not launched its fatality totals.
►German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, visiting Canada this week as he seeks to scale back his nation’s reliance on Russian vitality, is anticipated to signal a take care of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to produce clear hydrogen to Germany.
►A ballot of Ukrainians founds that 92% of respondents imagine their nation will win the battle. The survey was performed by the Ilko Kucheriv Foundation, an unbiased Ukrainian suppose tank.
►Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shall be awarded this 12 months’s Liberty Medal for “his heroic defense of liberty in the face of Russian tyranny,” the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia mentioned Monday.
►Air defenses within the Crimean metropolis of Sevastopol repelled an Ukrainian assault at a navy airfield, Russian-appointed regional chief Mikhail Razvozhayev mentioned by way of Telegram on Sunday, a day after a drone assault on Russia’s Black Sea fleet in the identical metropolis additionally apparently failed.
Dugin says revenge in daughter’s death not sufficient, calls for ‘victory’
Far-right political author Alexander Dugin, also known as “Putin’s brain,” issued a statement dismissing calls for vengeance in the car bombing death of his daughter, instead urging Russians to focus on winning the war.
Dugin said Daria Dugina was “brutally killed by an explosion in entrance of my eyes.” He lauded her “profound, grounded and restrained” hardline speeches and said she never called for violence. He said a memorial service would be held Tuesday.
“She was a rising star at the start of her journey,” Dugin said. “Our hearts yearn for extra than simply revenge or retribution. It’s too petty, not within the Russian type. We solely want our victory.”
Soccer league restarts ready to show ‘Ukrainian life and will to win’
Teams from two of Ukraine’s most embattled cities will help kick off Tuesday’s return of top-level soccer, as the 16-club Premier League plays its first matches since before the Russian invasion.
Metalist 1925 from Kharkiv and Shakhtar Donetsk — one eastern city under repeated Russian shelling, the other one trying to fend off the invaders’ advances — will meet in a poignant and highly symbolic season opener at Kyiv’s Olympic Stadium.
Amid the chaos and hardship caused by the war, the clubs will do their part to provide a sense of joy and normalcy under highly irregular conditions. Neither team is playing at home, fans won’t be allowed at the 65,000-capacity stadium in the capital city’s downtown, and if air-raid sirens sound, the players will be rushed to bomb shelters. All matches will be played in the Kyiv area or further west away from the fighting.
“We are ready, we are strong and I think we will show to all the world Ukrainian life and will to win,” Shakhtar captain Taras Stepanenko told The Associated Press.
The league’s return to action, endorsed by the nation’s leaders, takes place on Ukraine’s flag day and one day ahead of Wednesday’s celebration of independence from control by the Soviet Union, which the former republic declared in 1991.
The Ukrainian Premier League took its scheduled winter break in mid-December and was supposed to restart Feb. 25 — the after Russia invaded, forcing games to be canceled as everyday life got overturned for much of the country.
Soccer federation president Andriy Pavelko said he has talked with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “about how essential soccer is to distract. We spoke about how it could be attainable that soccer may assist us take into consideration the long run.”
Ukraine asks UN to halt trials for Ukrainians captured at Azov metal plant
Ukraine requested the United Nations and the Red Cross to behave in opposition to sham trials in Mariupol. Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s commissioner for human rights, appealed to each organizations to forestall “yet another violation of the Geneva Convention.” Russian-backed authorities are reportedly planning to carry a trial Wednesday – Ukraine’s Independence Day — for fighters captured on the Azovstal metal plant within the last days of the ill-fated protection of Mariupol.
“If this despicable show trial takes place … this will be the line beyond which any negotiations are impossible,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned. “Russia will cut itself off from the negotiations. There will be no more conversations.”
Russia struggling to get Luhansk separatists to assist conquer all of Donbas
Russia’s failure to seize the second half of Ukraine’s japanese Donbas area could also be due partly to its incapability “to inspire the auxiliary forces it’s utilizing to reinforce its common troops,” the British Defense Ministry said in an intelligence update Monday.
The Kremlin took control of the Luhansk province in July with help from Ukrainian separatists from that area, but some of those fighters refused to engage in battle for the Donetsk province, the ministry said, citing evidence circulating in Ukrainian social media. That part of the Donbas remains contested.
Threats and intimidation from senior commanders failed to sway the fighters, the ministry said, adding that Russian leaders are resorting to financial incentives to have enough troops capable of carrying out offensive operations.
EU foreign policy chief opposes blanket ban on Russian visas
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called on the bloc not to ban all Russian visas, saying the EU shouldn’t open its doors to oligarchs but many Russians want to flee the country amid its invasion of Ukraine.
Estonia Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin are among European leaders calling on the EU to stop issuing tourist visas to all Russians. The Finnish government agreed last week to cut back the number of visas issued to Russians after tourists began entering Finland en route to European vacations following Russia’s lifting of pandemic-related border restrictions a month ago.
“To forbid the doorway to all Russians shouldn’t be a good suggestion,” Borrell mentioned.
Contributing: The Associated Press
