Russia says evidence links concert hall attackers to ‘Ukrainian nationalists’
Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Thursday it had uncovered evidence that the gunmen who killed more than 140 people in an attack on a concert hall last week were linked to “Ukrainian nationalists.”
In a statement, it said the attackers had received significant amounts of cash and cryptocurrency from Ukraine. Ukraine has emphatically denied it had anything to do with the attack, the deadliest in Russia for 20 years.
The suburban Moscow music hall where gunmen opened fire on concertgoers was a blackened, smoldering ruin Saturday as the death toll in the attack surpassed 130 and Russian authorities arrested four suspects.
President Vladimir Putin claimed they were captured while fleeing to Ukraine.
Kyiv strongly denied any involvement in Friday’s assault on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Krasnogorsk, and the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate claimed responsibility.
Putin did not mention ISIS in his speech to the nation, and Kyiv accused him and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the assault to stoke fervor for Russia’s war in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year.
“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement. The US shared information with Russia in early March about a planned terrorist attack in Moscow and issued a public warning to Americans in Russia, Watson said.
Putin said authorities detained a total of 11 people in the attack, which also wounded more than 100. He called it “a bloody, barbaric terrorist act” and said Russian authorities captured the four suspects as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a “window” prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border.