Images of the explosion were widely circulated on Telegram by the Baza and 112 news agencies, which reported that Darya Dugina, daughter of Alexander Dugin, was killed instantly by the blast. Russia’s TASS news agency cited law enforcement sources who confirmed that a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado blew up, but did not confirm the driver’s identity, only describing the victim as a woman. A man identified by TASS as Dugina’s acquaintance, however, confirmed that he was killed. Russian news agency Baza reported that Dugina, 29, was returning home from a literature and music festival called “Tradition” when the explosion occurred. He was reportedly behind the wheel for only 10 minutes before the explosion. Alexander Dugin was supposed to be in the vehicle driven by his daughter, but had gotten into a different one at the last second, according to Pyotr Lundstrem, a Russian violinist cited by the agency. Dugin was reportedly following right behind his daughter and watching her car explode. Photos shared by Baza appeared to show Dugin distraught at the scene, holding his head in both hands as he stood in front of the fiery wreckage. Denis Pushilin, the Russian proxy leader of occupied Donetsk, Ukraine, angrily blamed “Ukrainian regime terrorists” for the explosion, writing on Telegram that they were “trying to kill Alexander Dugin” but “blow up his daughter”. “In memory of Daria, she is a true Russian,” wrote Pushilin. Pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and social media pages blamed Ukraine for the blast and called on the Russians to “take revenge” for Dugina’s death. Investigators reportedly view the explosion as a targeted strike that may have been intended for Alexander Dugin, a philosopher widely believed to be the chief architect of Vladimir Putin’s ideology of a “Russian world” and the driving force behind his aggression against of Ukraine. Darya Dugina had voiced her support for Russia’s war against Ukraine and was sanctioned by the US government in March over her role in a Kremlin-run influence operation known as Project Lakhta.
