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Zelensky aide denies Ukraine link to Moscow concert hall attack

Russia's security service said it had arrested the gunmen behind the attack while they were trying to flee to Ukraine

Published: Sat 23 Mar 2024, 6:33 PM

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  • AFP

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People place flowers and toys at the fence next to the Crocus City Hall, on the western edge of Moscow, following an attack on Friday. — AP

People place flowers and toys at the fence next to the Crocus City Hall, on the western edge of Moscow, following an attack on Friday. — AP

Kyiv said on Saturday it rejected Russian claims of a Ukrainian link to an attack on a Moscow concert hall that killed more than 100 people.

Russia's FSB security service said on Saturday it had arrested the gunmen behind the attack while they were trying to flee to Ukraine.

"The versions of Russian special services regarding Ukraine are absolutely untenable and absurd," Mykhaylo Podolyak, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said in a post on X.

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Daesh group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in Russia in almost two decades.

People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial to the victims of a shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow. — Reuters

People lay flowers at a makeshift memorial to the victims of a shooting attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in Moscow. — Reuters

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."

It did not provide further details.

Some Russian lawmakers, as well as former president Dmitry Medvedev, have also evoked a possible Ukrainian connection, without providing evidence.

Russia said on Saturday it had arrested 11 people -- including four assailants -- though Moscow has not responded to Daesh'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".

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