Following the outbreak of the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine,
arson attacks on Russian military enlistment and induction centers were a widely reported phenomenon. The dispersed arson attacks were, however, rarely attributed to a group with the exception of those claimed by the
Combat Organization of Anarcho-Communists. Former Deputy of the
State Duma Ilya Ponomarev claims to have made contact with one group behind these acts of arson in April 2022. Simultaneously, Ponomarev and others established two media outlets based in Kyiv aimed at an anti-Putin audience within Russia: YouTube channel February Morning () and its affiliated
Telegram-based publication
"Rospartisan" (). The two outlets encouraged
direct action including arson and sabotage to the extent of providing directions. In Ponomarev's narrative to the
Kyiv Post, the National Republican Army group shifted from anonymous arson to an
assassination plot against Dugin and Dugina as "something high-profile for which they could become well-known." He claims that a contact in the group told him a week before the assassination to expect "something big," followed by his contact instructing him to "watch the news." Following news coverage of the assassination, Ponomarev claims that he was provided evidence of the group's responsibility. Ponomarev gave a similar account to Radio NV (), elaborating that his contacts "sent certain photos to prove their involvement." Following the killing of Darya Dugina, Ponomarev took to
February Morning to attribute the attacks to the hitherto unknown National Republican Army and to read its manifesto on air. The NRA's manifesto was also released in text form via
Rospartizan. Subsequently, Ponomarev spoke with several outlets including
Meduza and attributed some of the earlier 2022 attacks on military induction centers to his contacts in the NRA. In a release to
TASS state-news agency, the
Federal Security Service declared their investigation of Dugina's assassination "solved" by attributing the attack to a "citizen of Ukraine, Natalia Vovk", whom they accused of being a part of
special forces of Ukraine. The statement further stated that Vovk had escaped to
Estonia. Ponomarev told
Meduza that his sources deny Vovk was the perpetrator, but left ambiguous whether she had a role. On 22 August 2022,
Rospartizan carried a message from a group calling itself the Army's "Revolutionary Military Council" (), stating that
Rospartizan would be the exclusive source of official messages, disavowing purported social media accounts. On 23 August, the National Republican Army mocked FSB allegations of a Ukrainian woman being the assassin with extensive details about the alleged assassin (such as renting an apartment in the same building as Dugina, travels and license plates), saying, "All this became known a day after the murder—this is the speed of the investigation!" The NRA said the Ukrainian woman is most likely a refugee from the occupied Mariupol who was framed. The NRA's Rospartizan said, "There are thousands of such women fleeing the occupied city to Europe through Russia. Playing this story is very convenient for Putin's special services—they found the 'guilty' and have nothing to show." On 31 August, a declaration on cooperation between the
Russian Volunteer Corps, the
Freedom of Russia Legion and the National Republican Army was signed in
Irpin,
Kyiv Oblast. The organizations also agreed to create a political center, the purpose of which is to represent their interests before the state authorities of different countries and organize a joint information policy.
Ilya Ponomarev will lead the political center. On 18 October 2022, a group of computer hackers identifying themselves as being connected to the NRA, contacted
Kyiv Post. They claim to have hacked
Technoserv and nearly a dozen other companies providing national security and defense contracting services for Russia. On 19 October, the group released the entire dump of data representing 1.2 terabytes. A computer expert described Technoserv as "the people who are the architects of the Russian Government," and the hack would likely indicate "access to the architecture networks, databases, cloud solutions, and other information that is of key importance to the Russian Government." On 4 April 2023, the National Republican Army published a statement, claiming they arranged the assassination of pro-Russian propagandist
Vladlen Tatarsky, who was
killed by a bomb while speaking at an event hosted at a Saint Petersburg café. == Descriptions to the media ==