Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev assured on Tuesday that Ukraine is involved in last Friday’s terrorist attack in a Moscow concert hall, where four armed men stormed the building and killed about 140 people.

When asked by the press whether Ukraine or the Islamic State were responsible for the attack, the “number three” in the Security Council answered decisively: “Ukraine, of course”According to the Russian news agency TASS.

Patrushev, who heads the Security Council only after Russian President Vladimir Putin and the organization’s vice-president Dmitry Medvedev, He did not provide additional information or justify his response.

The Secretary of the Security Council is staunch defender of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and came to assure that Russia is not in a state of war, and the conflict is rather an attempt by the West to counteract Moscow and Kyiv.

Patrushev’s statements came less than 24 hours after he himself Putin admitted the attack was the work of “radical Islamists”, but also stood by his theory that Ukraine may have been involved in the attack. “We are interested in knowing who the customer is,” he said.

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In its turn, This was stated by the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov. The attack was “prepared by radical Islamists”but that “Western intelligence services contributed to this” and Ukrainian special services were “directly related” with a massacre that left at least 139 people dead.

Kyiv called the accusations a “chronic lie”

Ukraine today called Russia’s accusations a “chronic lie” Kyiv’s alleged involvement in last Friday’s Islamist attack.

“Once again. This is already a chronic phenomenon. “There are irrefutable facts, a common understanding (in different countries) of the causes and consequences, complete disbelief even on the part of neutral countries in the “Ukrainian trace” in the terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall,” wrote Advisor to the President of Ukraine Mikhail Podolyak on the social network X.

He emphasized that after “lie” on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who “obsessively and compulsively” trying to create the impression that Ukraine was behind the reported attack on the part of the Islamic State, now it is the turn of the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev and the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov.

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On Monday evening the President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky called Putin a “sick and cynical beast”after hours earlier, he accused Ukraine of somehow being behind the attack, as did its Western allies, especially the United States.

(according to information from Europe Press and EFE)