Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that authorities had detained 11 people over an attack on a concert hall in a Moscow suburb that killed at least 115 people and left the sprawling venue in ruins.
In an address to the nation, Putin called it a “bloody, barbaric act of terror” and said all four people directly involved had been detained. He suggested they had been trying to cross the border into Ukraine, which he said was trying to create a “window” to help them escape.
Ukraine has strongly denied involvement in the attack. Putin said on Saturday that extra security measures had been taken across the country and declared Sunday a national day of mourning.
The Islamic State group’s Afghan branch claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in a statement posted on an affiliated social media channel. A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. agencies had confirmed the group was responsible for the attack.
The attack, Russia’s worst in years, came days after Putin consolidated power with a carefully orchestrated electoral landslide and as Ukraine’s war entered its third year.
Immediately after the attack, some Russian lawmakers pointed the finger at Ukraine. Mikhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, denied having anything to do with the incident.
“Ukraine has never resorted to terror,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “Everything in this war can only be decided on the battlefield.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry also denied any involvement by the country and accused Moscow of using the attack to try to fan enthusiasm for its war effort.
“We consider such accusations to be a planned provocation by the Kremlin to further fan anti-Ukrainian hysteria in Russian society, create conditions for greater mobilization of Russian citizens in criminal aggression against our country, and discredit Ukraine in the eyes of the international community. community,” the ministry said in a statement.
Images shared by Russian state media on Saturday showed a convoy of emergency vehicles still gathering outside the ruins of Krokus City Hall, which can accommodate more than 6,000 people.
Video posted online showed gunmen shooting at civilians at close range at the venue. Russian news reports cited authorities and witnesses as saying the attackers threw explosive devices that started the fire. Firefighters spent hours extinguishing a blaze at the theater whose roof collapsed early Saturday as people gathered to watch a performance by Russian rock band Piknik.
The Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State said in a statement carried by its Amaq news agency that it attacked a large group of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk. The veracity of that claim could not immediately be verified.
A U.S. intelligence official told The Associated Press that U.S. intelligence agencies have gathered information in recent weeks that an Islamic State affiliate was planning attacks in Moscow, and U.S. officials privately shared the intelligence with Russian officials earlier this month .
The official was briefed on the matter but was not authorized to discuss intelligence information publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Messages poured in from around the world expressing anger, shock and support for the victims and their families.
The United Nations Security Council on Friday condemned the “heinous and cowardly terrorist attack” and stressed that those responsible must be held accountable. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned the terrorist attack “in the strongest possible terms,” his spokesman said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people lined up in Moscow to donate blood and plasma on Saturday, Russia’s health ministry said.
Putin extended his control over Russia for another six years in this week’s presidential election following a sweeping crackdown on dissent. He publicly denounced Western warnings of potential terrorist attacks, calling them an attempt to intimidate Russians. “All of this is akin to open blackmail in an attempt to intimidate and destabilize our society,” he said earlier this week.
In October 2015, a bomb planted by IS shot down a Russian passenger plane over the Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224 people on board, most of whom were Russian holidaymakers returning from Egypt. The group operates primarily in Syria and Iraq but also operates in Afghanistan and Africa and has been responsible for a number of attacks in Russia’s restive Caucasus region and elsewhere over the past few years. It recruited fighters from Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
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