ISIS solely responsible for Moscow attack, no Ukraine involvement: White House

WASHINGTON - The Islamic State bears sole responsibility for the deadly attack near Moscow on March 22 and there was no Ukrainian involvement, US National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said on March 23.

The incident, which saw several gunmen rampage through the Crocus Concert Hall in the Russian capital,

left at least 143 people dead.

The United States government early this month shared information with Russia about a planned attack in Moscow and also issued a public advisory to Americans in Russia on March 7, Ms Watson said in a statement.

“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” Watson said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly video address on March 23 that Russian President Vladimir Putin was seeking ways to divert blame for the massacre.

“It’s obvious that Putin and other thugs are just trying to blame someone else,” he said. “Their methods are always the same. We’ve seen it all before, destroyed buildings and shootings and explosions. And they always find someone else to blame.”

Chechen rebels accused Russian secret services of being behind apartment bombings in Moscow, Buynkask and Volgodonsk that killed more than 200 people in Russia in 1999. The acts were blamed on Chechens, prompting Mr Putin, who was then prime minister, to send troops back to Chechnya.

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said Mr Zelensky was “the only head of state crazy enough to blame Russia for the terrorist attack”.

Earlier, Mr Putin said 11 people

had been detained following the attack, including the four gunmen.

“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said.

Mr Zelensky said Mr Putin should use his own men to fight terrorism at home instead of invading Ukraine.

“They have brought hundreds of thousands of their own terrorists here, on Ukrainian land, to fight against us, and they don’t care about what is happening inside their own country,” he said.

“Yesterday, as all this happened, instead of dealing with his fellow Russian citizens, addressing them, the wimp Putin was silent for a full 24 hours, thinking about how to tie this to Ukraine. It’s all absolutely predictable,” Zelensky said. REUTERS