RUSSIA’S top counterterrorism body blamed Ukrainian intelligence agencies today for the bombing attack that killed a prominent war blogger who posted pro-Moscow reports from the front line in Ukraine.

Russian officials said Vladlen Tatarsky was killed on Sunday as he was leading a discussion at a cafe on the banks of the Neva river in central St Petersburg. 

Over 30 people were wounded by the blast, and 10 of them remain in grave condition.

The National Anti-Terrorist Committee, a state structure that coordinates counterterrorism operations, said that the “terrorist act” against Mr Tatarsky was “planned by Ukrainian special services” with the involvement of people who have co-operated with an anti-corruption foundation created by jailed Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny.

They added that the arrested suspect was an “active supporter” of Mr Navalny’s group.

Shortly before the announcement, Russia’s Investigative Committee, the top state criminal investigation agency, reported the arrest of Darya Tryopova, from St Petersburg, on suspicion of involvement.

Ms Tryopova had been previously detained for taking part in anti-war rallies.

Investigators believe that the bomb was hidden in a bust of the blogger that the suspect had given to him as a gift just before the explosion.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the blogger’s posts had “won him the hatred” of Kiev.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted: “Spiders are eating each other in a jar.” 

The “question of when domestic terrorism would become an instrument of [the] internal political fight was a matter of time.”

VladlenTatarsky was the pen name for Maxim Fomin, who had accumulated more than 560,000 followers on his Telegram messaging app channel.