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Russian officials are vowing to strike Ukraine after the daughter of a prominent ally to President Vladimir Putin was killed in a car bombing over the weekend, the Telegraph reports.
Darya Dugina, 29, the daughter of ultra-nationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin, was pronounced dead at the scene after "an explosive device, presumably installed in the Toyota Land Cruiser, went off on a public road and the car caught fire," in Moscow on Saturday (August 20) night, according to the press service of the Russian Investigative Committee, as initially reported by TASS, a Russian state news agency, via CNN.com.
The committee said it believes the explosion was premeditated based on evidence collected at the scene.
"Taking into account the data already obtained, the investigation believes that the crime was pre-planned and was of an ordered nature," the investigative committee said in a statement Sunday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied his country had any involvement in Dugina's death while providing a warning to citizens.
"We should be aware that this week Russia may try to do something particularly nasty, something particularly cruel. Such is our enemy," Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, said in his regular video address.
Alexander Dugina, who has been referred to by many as "Putin's brain," was reported to have initially planned to travel with his daughter at the time of her death, but instead decided at the last minute take a different vehicle back to Moscow, according to the Telegraph.
Darya Dugina was a journalist who had covered the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine and attended trips organized by the Russian government to the rebel-held Donbas in eastern Ukraine, having recently been sanctioned by the British government for being "a frequent and high-profile contributor of disinformation in relation to Ukraine," the Telegraph reports.
Putin announced his country would conduct military operations in Eastern Ukraine during an NBC News translation of a speech addressing the Russian population in Moscow on February 24.
The announcement appeared to serve as the final action ahead of an attack by Putin and the Russian military, which the U.S. and European allies to the neighboring Ukraine have attempted to prevent from taking place through diplomatic discussions.
A Ukraine interior minister confirmed to NBC News via text message that "cruise and ballistic missile strikes" were already underway shortly after Putin's announcement.
NBC News correspondent Erin McLaughlin said explosions could be heard from her live shot in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital city, at 6:00 a.m. local time.
More than 1,000 protesters were reportedly arrested during anti-war protests throughout Russia amid President Putin's announcement to conduct military operations and ensuing attack on Ukraine, BNO News reported.