Ukraine has condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to attribute the terrorist attack at the Crocus City hall in Moscow, which resulted in the loss of 133 lives and left over 140 injured, to Ukraine.
Islamic State terrorists have claimed responsibility for the deadly attack that occurred on Friday evening.
In a national address on Saturday, Putin implied that Ukraine, his war-ravaged neighbor, had attacked them.
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He announced the arrest of the perpetrators, stating that they were apprehended while allegedly attempting to flee to Ukraine. Putin expressed anger, vowing to punish all those involved in the attack and their supporters.
“All four direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, were found and detained,” Putin said.
“They tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he added.
Reacting to the Russian leader’s allegations, Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said it was “absurd.”
“The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd,” Podolyak said in a post on X.
The FSB had said the perpetrators had “tried to escape, travelling by car towards the Russian-Ukrainian border … the criminals intended to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border and had appropriate contacts on the Ukrainian side.”
Meanwhile, some Russian lawmakers, as well as former president Dmitry Medvedev, have also evoked a possible Ukrainian connection, without providing evidence.
Russia said Saturday it had arrested 11 people in connection to the concert hall terror attack, but has not responded to IS’s claim of responsibility or said who it believes was behind the attack.
Kyiv’s own intelligence services had on Friday said it was a “planned and deliberate provocation by the Russian special services on Putin’s orders.”