There is no evidence the Ukrainian government was involved in the Crocus City massacre, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters on Monday.
More than 130 people were killed at the concert venue northwest of Moscow on Friday evening, when several armed men began shooting into the crowd then set the hall on fire. A terrorist group calling itself Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility.
“ISIS bears the sole responsibility here, the sole responsibility,” Jean-Pierre insisted. “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin understands that. We shared that with their government. And so there is no evidence, absolutely no evidence, that Ukraine was involved there.”
Jean-Pierre specifically referred to the March 7 public advisory, warning Americans in Russia to stay away from concert venues due to a threat of attacks by “extremists.” She said this was communicated to the Russian government as well, but would not answer as to how.
Russian security services detained four alleged perpetrators of the Crocus City Hall massacre, as well as seven of their suspected accomplices. The men were identified as ethnic Tajiks.
“This attack was carried out by radical Islamists,” Putin said in a meeting with law enforcement officials on Monday evening. “But we know who carried out the attack. We want to know who ordered it.”
The Russian president pointed to the fact that the suspects had been driving towards Ukraine after they fled Moscow, and that the atrocity directly served the ends of the government in Kiev.
“This atrocity may be only a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been fighting our country since 2014, using the neo-Nazi Kiev regime as their hand,” Putin said. “And the Nazis, as is well known, never hesitated to use the most dirty and inhumane means to achieve their goals.”
Mikhail Podoliak, the senior aide to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, has argued that Kiev “has not the slightest connection to this incident.”
Earlier on Monday, however, the head of the Ukrainian security service SBU, Vasily Malyuk, took credit for a string of attacks on Russian civilian infrastructure, including the Crimean Bridge and oil refineries. Meanwhile, a popular Kiev restaurant unveiled a menu of fried foods dubbed “Crocus City,” in what appears to be a mockery of those who perished in the fire set by the terrorists.
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