Four men suspected of killing at least 133 people in the
Moscow concert hall attack have been arrested by
Russian authorities - who claimed were headed to
Ukraine . President
Vladimir Putin shared the claims during an address to the nation on Saturday, March 23. Kyiv, on the other hand, strongly denies any involvement in Friday's attack on the Crocus City Hall
music venue in Krasnogorsk, which the
Islamic State group's affiliate in
Afghanistan claimed responsibility for in a statement posted on
Social Media. Kyiv instead accused Putin and other Russian politicians of falsely linking Ukraine to the event for political gain, stoking fervor in Russia's war in Ukraine, which recently entered its third year. A US intelligence official said US agencies confirmed that IS was responsible for the assault and had previously warned Moscow that an attack could be imminent. Putin explained that authorities have detained a total of 11 people in the attack, which injured hundreds of concertgoers and left the venue a smoldering ruin. He called it "a bloody, barbaric terrorist act" and said Russian authorities captured the four suspected gunmen as they were trying to escape to Ukraine through a "window" prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border. Putin added that
Russia imposed additional security measures throughout the country, and declared Sunday a day of mourning. The attack marks one of the deadliest in Russia in years. The concert hall was left in total ruin ( Image: Investigative Committee of Russia) Some commentators have since questioned how authorities, who relentlessly suppressed any opposition activities and muzzled independent media, failed to prevent the attack despite the US's warnings. The incident came two weeks after the
US Embassy in Moscow issued a notice urging Americans to avoid crowded places in view of "imminent" plans by extremists to target large Moscow gatherings, including concerts. Several other Western embassies repeated the warning. Investigators on Saturday were combing through the charred wreckage of the hall for more victims, and authorities said the death toll could still rise. Hundreds of people stood in line in Moscow early Saturday to donate blood and plasma, Russia's health ministry said. "We faced not just a thoroughly and cynically prepared
terror attack, but a well-prepared and organised mass murder of peaceful innocent people," Putin said. His claim that the attackers tried to flee to Ukraine followed comments by Russian lawmakers who pointed the finger at Ukraine immediately after the attack. But Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, denied any involvement. "Ukraine has never resorted to the use of terrorist methods," he posted on X. "Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield. The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd." Ukraine's foreign ministry accused Moscow of using the attack to try to stoke fervor for its war efforts, saying in a statement: "We consider such accusations to be a planned provocation by the
Kremlin to further fuel anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Russian society, create conditions for increased mobilization of Russian citizens to participate in the criminal aggression against our country and discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community." A tearful woman comes to place flowers at the fence next to the Crocus City Hall ( Image: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) Images shared by Russian state media Saturday showed emergency vehicles still gathered outside the ruins of Crocus City Hall, which could hold more than 6,000 people and has hosted many big events, including the 2013 Miss Universe beauty pageant that featured
Donald Trump and others. On Friday, crowds had gathered for a concert by the Russian rock band Picnic. Video footage that circulated online showed the gunmen in the venue
shooting civilians at point-blank range. Russian news reports cited authorities and witnesses as they told how the attackers threw explosive devices that started the
fire , which eventually consumed the building and caused its roof to collapse. Dave Primov, who survived the attack, described the chaos as concertgoers rushed to leave the building: "People began to panic, started to run and collided with each other. Some fell down and others trampled on them." Messages of outrage and support for the victims have poured in from across the globe. On Friday, the UN Security Council condemned "the heinous and cowardly terrorist attack" and underlined the need for the perpetrators to be held accountable. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack "in the strongest possible terms," his spokesman said. IS, which lost much of its ground after Russia's
MILITARY action in
Syria, has long targeted Russia. In a statement posted by the group's Aamaq news agency, IS's Afghanistan affiliate said it had attacked a large gathering of "Christians" in Krasnogorsk. In October 2015, a
bomb planted by IS downed a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, killing all 224 people on board, most of them Russian holidaymakers returning from
Egypt. ( Image: Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved) The group has claimed several attacks in Russia's volatile Caucasus and other regions in the past years, recruiting fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union. On March 7, just hours before the US embassy warned about imminent attacks, Russia's top security agency said it had thwarted an attack on a synagogue in Moscow by an IS cell, killing several of its members in the Kaluga region near the Russian capital. A few days before that, Russian authorities said six alleged IS members were killed in a shootout in Ingushetia, in Russia's Caucasus region. A U.S. intelligence official said
American intelligence agencies gathered information in recent weeks that the IS branch was planning an attack in Moscow, and that U.S. officials had privately shared the intelligence earlier this month with Russian officials. Another US official said the IS branch in Afghanistan had long targeted Russia and reiterated that no Ukrainians were involved in the attack. Just three days before the attack, Putin had publicly denounced the Western warnings of a potential terrorist attack as an attempt to intimidate Russians. "All that resembles open blackmail and an attempt to frighten and destabilize our society," he said at a meeting with top security officials.