WASHINGTON US intelligence United States believe members of the Ukrainian government authorized the deadly attack Daria DuginaDaughter of the ideologue Alexander Dugin, Putin’s guru, in August. If the fact is confirmed, this is part of a secret action by Ukrainians and could aggravate the war with Russia.
US officials did not say which government officials authorized the mission, who carried out the attack, or whether the Ukrainian president, Volodmyr Zelenskyywould have known.
The approval of state officials was shared within the US government last week. The US government was unaware of the fact, but after the alleged involvement was discovered it reportedly reprimanded the Ukrainians. How Ukraine reacted is not known.
Shortly after the assassination, Ukraine denied involvement in the bombing. In addition, highranking authorities in the country repeatedly reiterated their denials in surveys.
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The picture shows Russian investigators at the spot where the vehicle that Daria Dugina was in exploded on August 21 this year.
While Russia is not taking direct retaliation for the assassination, the United States fears that such attacks — though highly symbolic — could provoke Moscow to attack senior Ukrainian officials. US officials have been frustrated by Ukraine’s lack of transparency about its military and secret plans, particularly on Russian soil.
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Since the beginning of the war, Ukraine’s security services have proven their ability to reach Russia to conduct sabotage operations. However, Dugina’s assassination would be one of the boldest operations yet and shows that Ukraine can get very close to prominent Russians.
Some US officials suspect that Dugina’s father, Alexander Dugin, a Russian ultranationalist and leading advocate of an aggressive, imperialist Russia, was the real target of the operation. Authorities said the perpetrators believed he was in the vehicle with his daughter.
Secret plans of Ukraine
While the Pentagon and US spy services have shared classified battlefield intelligence with Ukrainians to help them focus on Russian command posts, supply lines and other key targets, Ukrainians have not always told US officials what to do.
The United States has pressured Ukraine to say more about its war plans. At the start of the war, US officials acknowledged that, thanks to their intense espionage efforts, they often knew more about Russian war plans than Kiev’s intentions.
Since then, information cooperation between the two countries has increased. A few months ago, for example, Ukraine shared with the United States and Britain its plans for the military counteroffensive developed in September.
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US officials also do not have a full picture of the Ukrainian government’s internal squabbling, which includes the military, security services and Zelenskyy’s cabinet a fact that suggests some sections of the Ukrainian government may be unaware of their involvement in Dugina’s assassination .
Asked about the information from US intelligence on Tuesday, April 4, Mikhailo Podoliak, one of the most active advisers to the President of Ukraine, reiterated his involvement in Dugina’s assassination. “I want to reiterate that every wartime assassination in one country or another must have some practical significance,” Podoliak told the New York Times. “It has to serve a specific tactical or strategic purpose. Someone like Dugina is not a tactical or strategic target for Ukraine,” he added.
“We have other targets on the territory of Ukraine,” continued Podoliak, “I mean collaborators and Russian commando representatives who might be of value to members of our special services working on this program, but certainly not Dugina.”
While details of acts of sabotage in Russiancontrolled territory are unknown, the Ukrainian government tacitly admits its involvement in the assassination of Russian officials in Ukraine and the sabotage of Russian factories and weapons depots.
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Alexander Dugin and daughter Daria
A senior Ukrainian military official said on condition of anonymity that Ukrainian forces, with the help of local fighters, carried out attacks and assassinations on suspected Ukrainian collaborators and Russian officials in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Among them is, for example, the chief assigned by Russia to look after the occupied Kherson region, who was poisoned in August and had to go to Moscow for urgent treatment.
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Countries traditionally do not discuss other nations’ covert actions for fear of their own operations being exposed, but some US officials believe curbing what they see as dangerous adventurism, particularly political assassinations, is crucial.
The involvement did not affect USUkraine relations
Still, US officials have struggled in recent days to insist that ties between the two administrations remain strong. US concerns over Ukraine’s aggressive covert operations in Russia have not led to any known changes in the provision of intelligence, military and diplomatic support to the Zelenskyy government or Ukraine’s security services.
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba that the Joe Biden administration “will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of the territory by increasing military and diplomatic assistance.”
State Department, National Security Council, Pentagon and CIA officials declined to comment on the intelligence assessment.
Russia launched an investigation shortly after Dugina’s assassination and classified it as an act of terrorism. According to the Russian secret service FSB, the secret service of Ukraine was responsible.
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A day after the attack, the FSB said Ukrainian agents hired a Ukrainian woman who entered Russia in July, rented an apartment where Dugina lived and fled the country shortly after the attack.
Ilia Ponomarev, a former member of the Russian Duma who voted against the annexation of Crimea, claimed that a group of proUkrainian and antiPutin militants operating in Russia known as the National Republican Army were responsible for the assassination be responsible. Officials in Washington are skeptical of the Russian’s claims.