US intelligence services suspect that Ukraine could be behind the assassination attempt on the daughter of Russian nationalist Alexander Dugin. Immediately after the attack, Ukraine denied involvement in the assassination. Concerned tones are now coming from the USA.
US intelligence agencies believe sections of the Ukrainian government “authorized” the August car bombing near Moscow, reports The New York Times.
The US authorities suspect that Darya Dugina’s father, Aleksander Dugin, a Russian ultra-nationalist, was the actual target of the operation and that the agents who conducted it assumed he was in the vehicle with his daughter . Immediately after the attack, Ukraine denied involvement in the assassination. Senior officials repeated the denial when asked about the assessment of American intelligence, the newspaper said.
A Ukrainian military official is said to have confirmed to the newspaper that the Ukrainian army had already carried out attacks on Ukrainian collaborators and also on Russian officials in the occupied territories. It is still unclear whether Ukrainian President Volodymiyr Zelenskyj personally approved the attack on Dugina.
American officials have also been frustrated by Ukraine’s lack of transparency regarding its military and covert plans, particularly on Russian soil, the report said.
U.S. officials are suspicious that while the Pentagon and spy agencies have provided Ukrainians with sensitive information about the battlefield in Ukraine that will help them locate Russian command posts, supply lines, and other key targets, Ukrainian officials have not have always communicated what they are planning or intending to do.
Basically, the information is treated very sensitively, reports “The New York Times”. The American officials who spoke about the intelligence did not specify which parts of the Ukrainian government authorized the Dugina mission or who exactly carried out the attack.
While Russia has not taken specific retaliatory action for the assassination, the United States is concerned that such attacks could prompt Moscow to launch its own attacks on senior Ukrainian officials. The fear that Russia could try to assassinate Ukrainian leaders or even President Zelenskyy in the coming weeks or months is stated in the report. The secret services are said to have given no further details. So far, official representatives of the US State Department or the CIA have not commented on the report.
