The US government said on Sunday there was “no Ukrainian involvement” in the massacre at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, after Russian President Vladimir Putin cited a link to Ukraine.
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There is “no evidence” that Ukraine is involved in the massacre which left at least 137 dead and “IS (Islamic State jihadist group, Editor’s note) is responsible,” retorted the American vice-president Kamala Harris during a television interview on Sunday.
“The Islamic State (IS) bears full responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement,” added Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the American National Security Council, in a statement.
Washington responds to the speech by Vladimir Putin who denounced, on Saturday, a “barbaric terrorist” act and announced that “the four perpetrators” of the attack had been arrested “while they were heading towards Ukraine”, without mention the claim of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
Occurring Friday in a concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, northwest of the Russian capital, this attack is the deadliest in Russia in twenty years and the bloodiest to have been claimed by IS in Europe.
ISIS, which Russia is fighting in Syria and which is also active in the Russian Caucasus, has already carried out attacks in the country since the end of the 2010s. But the group has never claimed responsibility for an attack of such magnitude. magnitude.
In one of its Telegram accounts, the jihadist group claimed on Friday evening that the attack had been carried out by four of its members and was part of “the context (…) of the raging war” between the group and “countries fighting Islam”.
But neither Vladimir Putin nor the security services (FSB) have accused ISIS, with the FSB saying that the suspects had “proper contacts on the Ukrainian side” and intended to flee to that country, without providing further details on the nature of these links or proof of their existence.
“Ukraine has not the slightest link with the incident,” insisted the adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, Mykhaïlo Podoliak, rejecting “absurd” accusations.