applies the the ukrainians were responsible. a claim that ukrainian authorities have denied one senior official saying we are not a criminal state. fred pleitgen is in moscow. where do things stand on this investigation? reporter: a lot of this is still very much a mystery. at such dazzling time in russia as you have russia s special military operation, as they call it, in ukraine, going on. so there were, of course, someone in the pretty high echelons in russia who believe that maybe the ukrainians might be behind all this. but right now, it still remains absolutely unclear. the latest from the investigation is that they say the explosive yield of that charge was the equivalent of about 400 grams of tnt. they say the bomb was placed inside the car. they ve recovered some parts and sent it in for a forensic investigation as well. still very much unclear who might be behind all this. here s what we re learning. reporter: a car engulfed in a massive fire ball on a highway o
applies the the ukrainians were responsible. a claim that ukrainian authorities have denied one senior official saying we are not a criminal state. fred pleitgen is in moscow. where do things stand on this investigation? reporter: a lot of this is still very much a mystery. at such dazzling time in russia as you have russia s special military operation, as they call it, in ukraine, going on. so there were, of course, someone in the pretty high echelons in russia who believe that maybe the ukrainians might be behind all this. but right now, it still remains absolutely unclear. the latest from the investigation is that they say the explosive yield of that charge was the equivalent of about 400 grams of tnt. they say the bomb was placed inside the car. they ve recovered some parts and sent it in for a forensic investigation as well. still very much unclear who might be behind all this. here s what we re learning. reporter: a car engulfed in a
i don t think it is your normal terrorist group, for instance, the chechnyans or the rest of it. so a friend of the dugin family said darya was driving her father s car when it happened. she s been an outspoken russian nationalist herself. do you believe she was the target? do you believe it was her father who was the target? on was there suspicion that they would be potentially in that car? i think the suspicion so far is that he went off in a different car. the real target, what was the father, alexander, because he is, he s almost call for genocide against ukrainians. he s a eurasian nationalist, whatever that is. and he s pushing putin, at least on tv, if not personally, to wipe out ukraine. he s december missed in ukraine. he s looked at it as someone who
we should talk about the policy of state terrorism implemented by the kyiv regime. the ukrainians deny any involvement. i emphasized that ukraine has nothing to do with this. we are not a criminal state which the russian federation is and even more so, we are not a terrorist state. but some in russia believe daria was not the xulg target of the explosion but rather her father. alexander dugan also sanctioned by the u.s. remains highly influential in russia as he called for the annexation of large parts of ukraine. an ultima conservative tv personality with roots in the orthodox church, he is a champion of expansionism. some say he may have influenced vladimir putin s decision to invade ukraine. in 2014 he said russia must kill, kill, and kill the people running ukraine and that there
putin may use this as pretext to pick up the assault on ukraine. he may start assassinating people overseas. prominent ukrainians, something like this. he will use it as a pretext. as for the facts of the attack, i don t think we ll ever see that. so do you feel, you already mentioned, this is a very sophisticated possibly remote controlled bombing. are these the hall marks of any particular person, entity, or even country based on the kinds of crimes like this that have been investigated in. reporter: you know, fred, it is the precision. they went out of their way not to kill anybody else. killed in the parking lot she could have been pistol or any number of ways but it is the precision that should scare the russians. we re talking about professionals. there are people in ukraine who could carry this off.