The Azov Regiment, according to the Kyiv Independent, has denied that the prime suspect in the assassination of Russia’s 30-year-old journalist-activist, Darya Dugina, was a member. Neither Natalya Vovk, nor her alternate name, Natalya Shaban, they say, shows up as a member. With that disclaimer, they then lash out that the murder is, of course, a Russian operation, as it “heats up the public opinion of its citizens” about the need for the upcoming trial of war crimes carried out by the Azov and other militias in the Donbass.
However, Russia’s FSB never stated that the suspect was a member of the Azov Regiment. Their evidence is centered around Vovk/Shaban’s tailing of Dugina in the weeks prior to the car-bomb explosion, including Vovk’s presence at the “Tradition” celebration where the car-bomb would most likely have been affixed.
The main evidence of Vovk/Shaban’s involvement with Azov comes from a Russian website of the NemeZida project. It publishes data on Ukrainian servicemen. In April, 2022, they had posted that Natalya Shaban, born in 1979, served in the Azov-based National Guard. (The National Guard is not the same as the U.S. National Guard; rather, it was formed directly by the hardcore Azov Regiment, with many members not directly members of the Azov.) The April posting displays a copy of Natalya’s certificate indicating military unit No. 3057, in which the 12th brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine is stationed. Shaban is the name that her daughter, Sophia Shaban, used when they entered Russia — and the assumption is that Natalya Vovk is the maiden name of Natalya Shaban. The photograph of the National Guard member is a close match with the Natalya Vovk renting an apartment next to Darya Dugina’s residence.
