The White House has found no evidence suggesting Ukrainian involvement in the Moscow concert hall shooting that left at least 40 dead, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
“There is no indication at this time that Ukraine, or Ukrainians, were involved in the shooting. I would disabuse you at this early hour of any connection to Ukraine,” said Kirby.
Kirby confirmed that the United States is still gathering information following reports from Russian officials that gunmen opened fire in what they described as a “terrorist” attack.
While the US Embassy had issued a warning on March 7 about potential activities planned by “extremists” in the lead-up to the Russian presidential election, Kirby clarified that Washington had no prior knowledge of this specific attack.
Earlier, Ukrainian intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov stated that the shooting in Moscow was a deliberate provocation by Putin’s regime, which the international community had warned about.
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“This is a conscious provocation by Putin’s special services, about which the international community had warned. The Kremlin tyrant began his career with this and wants to end it with the same crimes against his own citizens,” Yusov told Ukrainska Pravda.
On the evening of March 22, the shooting attack occurred as crowds gathered for a concert by the Russian rock band, Picnic, at the Crocus City Hall concert center on the outskirts of Moscow.
Several people in camouflage opened fire on the crowd with automatic weapons and threw Molotov cocktails, starting a fire. According to Russian officials, 40 people are dead, and more than 100 others are injured. The building is still burning, and part of the roof has collapsed.
All tickets for the concert were sold out, and up to 7,200 people could have been inside the building. All entertainment and mass events in Russia have been canceled, Russia’s culture ministry has announced.
Russia faced deadly terror attacks in the early 2000s during the Chechen war. In 2002, Chechen militants took 800 hostages at a Moscow theater; 170 died, mostly from narcotic gas used by Russian forces. In 2004, Chechen militants seized a school in Beslan, taking hundreds hostage; the two-day siege ended with over 330 dead, about half of them children. Critics of Putin’s regime claim that the terrorist attacks could have been orchestrated by the FSB.
Read more:
- Moscow concert hall shooting a provocation by Putin’s FSB
- US Embassy warns its citizens in Russia of possible ‘extremist attacks’ in Moscow
- 8 Embassies, including US and UK, caution against terrorist threat in Moscow
- Official Kremlin admits it’s “in a state of war” with Ukraine for first time
