Russia-Ukraine war: Ukraine denies involvement in death of Putin ally’s daughter; don’t allow Moscow to sow fear, says Zelenskiy – as it happened | Russia

It’s coming up to 7pm UK time. Here’s a summary of all today’s events:

• The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (7.30pm BST), according to investigators.

• Ex-Russian MP Ilya Ponomarev claims Russian partisan group the National Republican Army is responsible for the Moscow car bomb.

• Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”

• British PM Boris Johnson and the leaders of the US, France and Germany stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine in a call, Johnson’s office said. “On a joint call, Johnson, US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz underlined their steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

• Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.

• Czechs have been sending money to Ukraine in memory of the 1968 invasion. Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops.

• Government employees in Kyiv have been told to work from home this week, over fears that the centre will be targeted with Russian missiles.

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day on Wednesday. In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule. “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said.

• The curfew in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am but extra precautions were required on independence day.

• Ukraine launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol earlier on Saturday. Officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down and that the city’s air defence system had been called into action again on Saturday night.

• Video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.

• Three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested for suspected spying after trying to break into a military base and arms factory in central Albania, the Albanian defence ministry said on Saturday. Two Albanian soldiers were injured in the incident at the Gramsh base, the ministry said, adding the conditions of the soldiers was stable. Albania’s prime minister, Edi Rama, said the three individuals are “suspected of espionage”.

Speaking in Kyiv, Ilya Ponomarev alleges that the bomb that killed the daughter of a Vladimir Putin ally earlier on Sunday was the work of underground group the National Republican Army.

The Guardian has not verified the authenticity of Ponomarev’s claims. Russian officials have blamed Ukraine for the attack, a claim Kyiv strongly denies.

British PM Boris Johnson and the leaders of the US, France and Germany on Sunday stressed the importance of ensuring the safety of nuclear sites in Ukraine in a call, Johnson’s office said.

“On a joint call, Johnson, US president Joe Biden, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz underlined their steadfast commitment to supporting Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.

“They stressed the importance of ensuring the safety and security of nuclear installations and welcomed recent discussions on enabling an IAEA mission to the Zaporizhzhia facility.”

Czech nationals have been sending exactly 1,968 crowns ($80) to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia and to commemorate the 1968 invasion of then Czechoslovakia by Soviet-led troops, the Ukrainian embassy said on Sunday.

The Czechs were using a special payment code to donate 1,968 crowns ($80) to an already existing account set up by Ukraine’s embassy in the Czech Republic to collect funds.

“Even at the weekend, dozens and dozens of payments in the value of 1,968 crowns are arriving to our account, thank you so much, Czech friends!” the embassy said on Twitter.

On 21 August 1968, armies of the Soviet Union and its allies crossed borders into Czechoslovakia, a fellow member of the eastern bloc, to crush a reform movement started earlier that year known as the Prague Spring.

The troops killed dozens of civilians and the subsequent occupation pushed tens of thousands into exile. The troops eventually left after the fall of Communist rule in 1989.

The Economist’s foreign correspondent Oliver Carroll tweeted this:

It is coming up to 4pm in Kyiv. Here is a summary of where we are today so far:

• The daughter of an ultranationalist Russian ideologue and ally of Vladimir Putin has been killed in a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow. Darya Dugina, whose father is the Russian political commentator Alexander Dugin, died when the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving was ripped apart by a powerful explosion about 12 miles (20km) west of the capital near the village of Bolshiye Vyazemy at about 9.30pm local time (1930 BST), according to investigators.

• Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war. Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”

• Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.

• Zelenskiy has warned Ukrainians to be vigilant in the coming week as they prepare to celebrate their independence day on Wednesday. In his nightly video address on Saturday, Zelenskiy said Ukrainians must not allow Moscow to “spread despondency and fear” as they mark the 31st anniversary of independence from Soviet rule. “We must all be aware that this week Russia could try to do something particularly ugly, something particularly vicious,” Zelenskiy said.

• The curfew in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, will be extended for the entire day on Wednesday, regional governor Oleh Synehub said on Saturday. The north-eastern city is regularly hit by Russian shelling and normally has a curfew from 10pm to 6am but extra precautions were required on independence day.

• Ukraine launched a fresh strike on Russia’s Black Sea fleet headquarters at Sevastopol earlier on Saturday. Officials in the annexed Crimean peninsula said that at least one drone had been shot down and that the city’s air defence system had been called into action again on Saturday night.

• Video shared on Twitter appeared to show Russian air defences attempting to destroy the UAV and dark plumes of smoke rising from the city.

• Three people with Russian and Ukrainian passports have been arrested for suspected spying after trying to break into a military base and arms factory in central Albania, the Albanian defense ministry said on Saturday. Two Albanian soldiers were injured in the incident at the Gramsh base, the ministry said, adding the conditions of the soldiers was stable. Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama said the three individuals are “suspected of espionage”.

Ukraine has denied involvement in the death of Darya Dugina amid fears the car bombing raises the stakes in the Russia-Ukraine war.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s top adviser, Mykhailo Podolyak, said in a televised statement that Ukraine had no involvement in the death of Dugina, the daughter of Putin confidant Alexander Dugin.

Podolyak told Ukrainian TV: “I confirm that Ukraine, of course, had nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, like the Russian Federation, and moreover we are not a terrorist state.”

He appeared to blame internal power struggles between “various political factions” in Russia for the killing, and suggested the incident was the “Karmic” payback for supporters of Russia’s actions in Ukraine like Dugina and her father.

More details are emerging about the suspected car bomb attack which killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist Russian ideologue who advocates Russia absorbing Ukraine.

The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee has ordered the institution’s central branch to take over the investigation.

“An explosive device was placed on the underside of the car on the driver’s side,” the committee said in a statement. “Darya Dugina, who was behind the wheel, died at the scene.

“The investigation believes that the crime was planned in advance and was of a contractual nature,” it added.

Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, said that if the investigation’s trail led to Ukraine, then it would point to a policy of “state terrorism” being pursued by Kyiv.

Dan Sabbagh

For the second time in less than a month, Russia’s naval base at Sevastopol has come under a drone attack. Plumes of smoke were seen rising after the incident on Saturday morning, which the Russian-appointed governor of the city, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said came after a drone flew over the sensitive military site.

In narrow military terms the attack is not significant. Razvozhaev said it involved a single drone. Footage from a local Telegram channel appears to back that up. But a key question is how a drone was able to evade Russian electronic warfare defences and fly right over the naval base.

What sounds like small arms fire, not air defence systems, can be heard on some of the videos and the drone may have been shot down before delivering a payload. Razvozhaev said initially the drone had not been hit, before saying it was. At the very least, though, it is embarrassing for Russia, which is struggling to show it can defend what it considers its own back yard.

Russia’s defence ministry said it has destroyed an ammunition depot containing missiles for US-made rocket systems and other Western-made anti-aircraft systems in Ukraine’s Odesa region, according to a report by Reuters.

The ministry also said it had destroyed two M777 Howitzers in combat positions in the Kherson region, and a fuel depot in the Zaporizhzhia region that it said was storing more than 100 tonnes of diesel fuel.

A spokesman for Odesa’s regional administration said two missiles had been shot down over the sea, but that three had struck agricultural targets.

There were no casualties, the spokesman, Serhiy Bratchuk, said. An explosives expert and investigators were working at the granary, he said.

Reuters was not able to immediately verify the battlefield reports.