Daria Dugina killed by Ukraine's Security Service by planting explosives in cat cage, WP says

The Washington Post reports this, citing anonymous security officials of the Ukrainian Security Service.

The SBU operatives installed a hidden compartment in a cat cage, where they hid the explosive components. The cage did not arouse suspicion among the military at the checkpoint, as it was transported in a car with a mother and her 12-year-old daughter.

A month later, the device detonated near Moscow in an SUV driven by the daughter of Russian propagandist Alexander Dugin, who called for the mass murder of Ukrainians. Journalists write that it was he who was targeted by the SBU, not his daughter.

This operation in August 2022 was part of a shadow war, during which Ukrainian intelligence services also bombed the Crimean bridge twice.

According to officials, the missions involved elite groups of Ukrainian operatives who were trained and equipped in close partnership with the CIA.

"Since 2015, the CIA has spent tens of millions of dollars to transform Ukraine’s Soviet-formed services into potent allies against Moscow, officials said. The agency has provided Ukraine with advanced surveillance systems, trained recruits at sites in Ukraine as well as the United States, built new headquarters for departments in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, and shared intelligence on a scale that would have been unimaginable before Russia illegally annexed Crimea and fomented a separatist war in eastern Ukraine," the article says. 

Also, according to officials, the CIA maintains a significant presence in Kyiv. US intelligence officials emphasized that the CIA is not involved in targeted destruction operations, but rather focuses on intelligence gathering.

Nevertheless, journalists noted that some officials do not approve of such liquidation operations.

“We have too many enemies who are more important to neutralize,” said a high-ranking Ukraine security official. “People who launch missiles. People who committed atrocities in Bucha. Killing the daughter of a pro-war firebrand is very cynical.”

“If Ukraine’s intelligence operations become even bolder — targeting Russians in third countries, for example — you could imagine how that might cause rifts with partners and come into serious tension with Ukraine’s broader strategic goals,” the official said. Among those goals is membership in NATO and the European Union.

The SBU's response

The SBU responded to the Washington Post article and said it would not comment on the media's information. The Service also emphasized that "all the details of the high-profile special operations will be discussed after Ukraine's victory in the war against Russia."

• Around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 20, 2022, a car belonging to the head of the International Eurasian Movement, one of the main ideologues of the armed invasion of Ukraine, Alexander Dugin, exploded and burned on the outskirts of Moscow.