August 22, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

Estonia's Police and Border Guard said Friday it can share information about people crossing the country's border "only in cases as determined by the law," and not because of accusations by Russia's special service in the media.

Estonian Police and Border Guard media representative Ragne Keisk provided a statement in an email to CNN.

The statement come after Russian news agency TASS reported that the Russian security service — the FSB — alleged the woman suspected for Russian political commentator Darya Dugina's murder was Ukrainian and had fled to Estonia after the attack.

"We can share information about people moving across the border only in cases as determined by the law and the Russian special service accusing them of doing something in the media is not one of them," Keisk said in the email to CNN.

"We have not received any formal information or request from the Russian authorities on this topic," Keisk said. 

The Estonian Foreign Ministry could not comment and directed inquiries to the Justice Ministry and the Border Guard. 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, continues its consultations with Ukraine and Russia to visit the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern Ukraine where intensified shelling has raised international concerns.

“It is in the midst of a warzone, it’s something that’s never been done before, to send a group of international inspectors,” IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told CNN’s Becky Anderson.

Grossi said there “is progress” in the difficult negotiations and if the visit goes ahead, he will be leading the team to the nuclear plant, the biggest in Europe.

“To get this operation together, it’s like a jigsaw puzzle,” Grossi said describing the difficulty of the visit in terms of logistics. 

More background: Attacks at the complex, which have ramped up as fighting flares in Ukraine's south, have sparked concerns about the specter of nuclear disaster, leading the UN's watchdog and world leaders to demand that a mission be allowed to visit the site and assess the damage. 

The risk for a nuclear accident “exists” and could potentially be “very, very big,” Grossi said.

 “We cannot say what magnitude it could have, but potentially it could be very, very big,” he said.

Ukraine's National Guard was not involved in a car explosion that killed Darya Dugina, the daughter of an influential ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, the country’s Defense Intelligence said Monday.

Yusov went on to point to Russia for an answer concerning the murder of Dugina near Moscow on Saturday, saying: “This looks more like sorting things out within Russia. Both Dugin and his daughter are marginal characters and not a point of interest to Ukraine.”

Earlier Monday, Russia blamed an agent with the Ukrainian security service for the car bomb explosion, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Alexander Dugin, whose daughter Darya was killed Saturday by a car bomb outside of Moscow, is the high priest of a virulent brand of Russian nationalism that has become increasingly influential in Russia's capital.

At the age of 60, from a family of Russian military officers, his journey has been remarkable: from fringe ideologue to the leader of a prominent strand of thinking in Russia that sees it at the heart of a "Eurasian" empire defying Western decadence. He is the spiritual founder of the term "the Russian world."

Along the way, this strand has incorporated a deep loathing of Ukraine's identity outside of Russia.

Dugin helped revive the expression "Novorossiya" or New Russia — which included the territories of parts of Ukraine — before the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin used the word in declaring Crimea part of Russia in March of that year.

Dugin has long had a visceral loathing of Ukrainians resisting assimilation into "mother Russia." After dozens of pro-Russian protesters were killed during clashes in Odesa in May 2014, he said: "Ukraine has to be either vanished from Earth and rebuilt from scratch or people need to get it. I think people in Ukraine need total revolt on all levels and in all regions. An armed revolt against junta. Not only in the South-East.

The following year, Dugin was sanctioned by the United States as "complicit in actions or policies that threaten the peace, security, stability, or sovereignty or territorial integrity of Ukraine."

Read the full analysis here.

Ukraine's national guard denied reports in Russian state media that the alleged killer of Darya Dugina had previously served in the Ukrainian military as a member of the Azov regiment.

The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti had shared a post from a Telegram channel run by Russian hackers (RaHDit) which claimed that the alleged assailant — a woman — had served in Azov, which is categorized in Russia as a terrorist organization.

With this report, Russian propagandists are "trying to justify among its citizens the previous decision to recognize a unit of the National Guard of Ukraine as a terrorist organization, showing Russians 'crimes committed by Azov' on the territory of the Russian Federation," the National Guard said. 

The woman had not served in the Azov unit of the National Guard, it added.

In a statement, Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence spokesperson Andriy Yusov called the reports of National Guard's involvement in the car bombing "fake."

“The National Guard is fulfilling its legal tasks at the territory of Ukraine,” he said. “Both Dugin and his daughter are marginal characters and not a point of interest to Ukraine.”

A senior Ukrainian official has provided the first official comment from Kyiv on the accusation by the Russian Security Service — the FSB — that Ukrainian security services murdered Darya Dugina in a car bomb attack near Moscow on Saturday.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of the office of the Ukrainian President, commented on Twitter:

Podolyak added: "Vipers in 🇷🇺 [Russian] special services started an intraspecies fight."

On Sunday, Podolyak strenuously denied Ukraine's involvement in the car explosion, saying in a Ukrainian TV interview that "Ukraine definitely has nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, which the Russian Federation is, and even more so, we are not a terrorist state," 

Alexander Dugin has made his first comments about the murder of his daughter Darya Dugina by a car bombing, blaming Ukraine for her death.

Dugin is the high priest of a virulent brand of Russian nationalism that has become increasingly influential in Moscow.

Dugina was killed during an explosion "in front of my eyes" while "returning from the Tradition festival near Moscow," he said in a statement through his friend Konstantin Malofeev's Telegram channel.

He called for Russian victory in the wake of her death.

"But we, our people, cannot be broken even by such unbearable blows," his statement read. "Our hearts yearn for more than just revenge or retribution. It's too small, not the Russian way. We only need our Victory. My daughter laid her maiden life on her altar. So win, please!"

A memorial service will be held for Dugina on Tuesday, he added.

Ukraine on Sunday strenuously denied any involvement in the car explosion, with Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, saying in a Ukrainian TV interview that "Ukraine definitely has nothing to do with this because we are not a criminal state, which the Russian Federation is, and even more so, we are not a terrorist state."

Russian President Vladimir Putin has commented for the first time on the murder of political commentator Darya Dugina, who was killed in a car bomb attack near Moscow on Saturday.

Putin on Monday sent his condolences to Dugina’s family, calling her death “a vile, cruel crime.” 

Dugina was the daughter of prominent Russian ultranationalist Alexander Dugin.

The Russian Federal Security Services earlier Monday blamed Ukrainian security services for being behind the attack. Ruslan Muzychuk, spokesperson for the Ukrainian National Guard, told CNN that Ukrainian authorities for now had no response to the claim.

In a statement published on the Kremlin's Telegram channel, Putin said, “A vile, cruel crime cut short the life of Daria Dugina, a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart – kind, loving, sympathetic and open."

"A journalist, scientist, philosopher, war correspondent, she honestly served the people, the Fatherland, she proved by deed what it means to be a patriot of Russia," he added.

CNN's Tim Lister contributed reporting to this post.

Ireland has reopened its embassy in Kyiv after nearly six months of closure, according to the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney stressed that the embassy team's priority will be "renewing and building their network of contacts with Ukrainian government officials to better inform Ireland’s provision of support and assistance to the government and people of Ukraine.

Coveney took a trip to Kyiv in April, visiting areas "directly impacted by the war" and meeting Ukrainian officials including his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, according to the news release. 

Foreign countries have gradually reopened their embassies in the Ukrainian capital after shutting their doors following the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The United States reopened its embassy in the city on May 18.