ROME, August 24. /TASS/. Pope Francis expressed condolences over the death of Russian Darya Dugina, calling her an "innocent victim."

"I think of the poor girl who was blown up by a bomb placed under the car seat in Moscow. The innocent pay the price of war," the ANSA news agency quoted the pontiff as saying on Wednesday at a collective audience.

Francis said he turned his thoughts to Russia and Ukraine on that day. "I pray that she, the Mother of God, will look to these two beloved countries and lead them to the peace we all so desperately need," he said.

The pontiff once again condemned those who make their money by selling weapons. "They (arms dealers - TASS) are criminals who kill humanity," the pope noted, recalling other conflicts, including those in Yemen and Syria.

On the evening of August 20, an explosive device went off in a Toyota Land Cruiser car on a road near the village of Bolshiye Vyazyomy, the Moscow Region. The car caught fire. As it was found out later, the explosive device had been planted under the vehicle’s floor on the driver's side. Dugina, who was driving the car, died on the spot. The Russian Federal Security Service's Public Relations Center told TASS that the murder had been solved. It was prepared by the Ukrainian special services, the perpetrator was Ukrainian citizen Natalia Vovk.