Ukraine has “no involvement” in the massacre at a Moscow concert hall that left more than 130 dead, the White House said on Sunday, after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a link with Kiev.
“ISIS bears full responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said, using the group’s acronym State Islamic group, which claimed responsibility for the attack.
There was “no” evidence that Ukraine was involved, Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged in an interview with ABC News’ “This Week” that aired Sunday.
“ISIS-K is in fact, by all accounts, responsible for what happened,” she said.
The “K” refers to Khorasan, with the attack being claimed by the IS branch in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
At least 137 people were killed when camouflaged gunmen stormed Crocus Town Hall in the northern Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk and then set the building on fire Friday evening.
The Islamic State group wrote on Telegram on Saturday that the attack was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives and incendiary bombs”, as part of “the war that is rage” with “countries fighting Islam”.
A video of about a minute and a half, apparently shot by the gunmen, was posted on social media channels typically used by IS, according to the SITE intelligence group.
Putin has vowed to punish those responsible for this “barbaric terrorist attack,” but in his only public remarks about the massacre he made no reference to ISIS’s claims of responsibility.
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Instead, he said four armed men trying to flee to Ukraine had been arrested.
“They tried to escape and were heading towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was open for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the national border,” he said in a televised speech on Saturday in the nation.
kyiv has strongly denied any links, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of trying to shift the blame to them.
IS-K is a Sunni militant group that emerged in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province around 2015 and hopes to install a hardline Islamic caliphate spanning India, Iran and Central Asia.
The group has carried out dozens of attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Under the Taliban, who view them as an enemy, analysts say their effectiveness in Afghanistan has eroded – but in recent months they have stepped up their activities globally.
