Ukraine firmly denies this
Kremlin blames Kiev for the terrorist attack
March 23, 2024, 2:04 p.m
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After the attack near Moscow that left over 100 dead, the Kremlin reports the arrest of eleven terror suspects. Four of the attackers were among them. The secret service claims that the perpetrators have “contacts” in Ukraine. However, Kyiv denies any involvement. The accusations are “absurd”.
One day after the terrorist attack on a concert hall in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk, Russia blamed Ukraine for the attack. Kiev denied any involvement and spoke of “absurd” allegations. More than 100 people died in the terrorist attack. The jihadist militia Islamic State (IS), which is fighting against Russia in Syria and is also active in the Russian Caucasus region, claimed responsibility for the crime, as the IS mouthpiece Amak reported on the Internet, citing unnamed sources. The Russian authorities initially did not comment on this. Experts assumed that this letter of confession was genuine.
On Saturday morning, the head of the Russian domestic secret service FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, reported the arrest of eleven people; four were said to have been “directly involved in carrying out the attack.” According to the TASS news agency, the FSB assumes that the attackers had “contacts” in Ukraine. “After carrying out the terrorist attack, the criminals wanted to cross the Russian-Ukrainian border,” TASS quoted an FSB statement as saying. According to the Russian Investigative Committee, the four suspected attackers were arrested in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine and Belarus.
The Russian authorities initially did not provide any evidence to support their suspicions about the attackers’ contacts in Ukraine. Putin himself only appeared publicly at midday and called the attack a “barbaric terrorist act.” He also claimed that the perpetrators wanted to flee to Ukraine.
Kyiv: Accusations are “absurd”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian leadership has rejected the allegations from Russia as “absurd”. “It was clear that the version of the Russian authorities would be ‘the Ukrainian trail,'” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told X. “The statements of the Russian services regarding Ukraine are completely untenable and absurd.” Ukraine has no connection whatsoever to the incident. “Ukraine has never used terrorist methods of war,” writes Podoljak.
Such suggestions about a Ukrainian connection have nothing to do with reality, said a spokesman for Ukrainian military intelligence. Rather, this is “another lie from the Russian secret service.” “Ukraine, of course, was not involved in this terrorist attack. Ukraine defends its sovereignty against Russian invaders, liberates its own territory and fights against the occupiers’ army and against military targets, not against civilians,” the spokesman added.
Shortly after the attack, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry rejected suspicions that Kiev was involved. In an initial reaction, the USA also warned not to establish any connection with Ukraine. “There is no evidence that Ukraine or Ukrainians had anything to do with the shooting,” US National Security Council communications director John Kirby said in Washington. Not much can be said about the details so far, but at this early stage we strongly advise against the assumption that there is a connection to Ukraine. The USA had warned in advance about the risk of terrorist attacks in Russia, but the country’s authorities apparently did not take this seriously.
Experts see evidence of IS as the perpetrator
The assessment that Ukraine was not involved in the terrorist attack was also shared by terrorism expert Peter Neumann from King’s College London in an interview with ntv. Accordingly, all evidence points to the terrorist militia Islamic State being the perpetrator. The letter of responsibility was distributed via the correct IS channels. In addition, the manner in which the attack was carried out typically speaks for IS, said Neumann. In addition, it has been proven that the terrorists are citizens of the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan. The IS offshoot is active there, said Neumann.
The political scientist Thomas Jäger assesses the situation similarly in an interview with ntv. After various scenarios were initially possible, the evidence increased that an IS group carried out the crime. But the exact knowledge is not yet available; the Russian government is currently keeping this to itself.
In Washington it was said that the USA had already warned the Russian authorities in March of a possible attack against “large gatherings”. Three weeks ago, the US government had information about a “planned terrorist attack in Moscow,” said a spokeswoman for the US National Security Council. The US warning specifically mentioned concerts in Moscow.