US denies Ukraine involvement in Moscow terrorist attack

Washington sees no evidence that Kyiv had a hand in a terrorist attack on a concert hall near Moscow, U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris said.

Ms Harris claimed in an interview with the ABC News broadcaster that a branch of the Islamic State terrorist group known as ISIS-Khorasan (banned in Russia) was behind the massacre.

“No, there is no, whatsoever, any evidence (of Ukrainian involvement). And in fact, what we know to be the case is that ISIS-K is actually by all accounts responsible for what happened,” she said.

She also described the attack as “an act of terrorism.”

“The number of people who have been killed is a tragedy, and we should all send our condolences to those families,” the U.S. vice president added.

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told Sputnik that there was no need to jump to conclusions, commenting on recent U.S. statements about ISIS involvement in the terrorist attack, as Russian special services were conducting investigations to find those responsible for the incident.

A shooting occurred on Friday evening in the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the city of Krasnogorsk, outside Moscow, followed by a massive fire.

A Sputnik correspondent who witnessed the attack reported that at least three men in camouflage had broken into the music hall, shooting people point-blank and throwing incendiary bombs.

The Russian authorities said that at least 137 people were killed in the attack, while Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and the Rossiya Segodnya media group, said the death toll had reached 143 people.

Eleven people were detained in connection with the attack, including four who were directly involved, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said.

All four suspected gunmen were detained in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Belarus and Ukraine, the FSB added.

The four suspects were charged with terrorism and ordered to be held in pretrial custody until May 22, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court said.

All of them are from Tajikistan and risk a life sentence in prison.

The Moscow-area concert hall shooting became the deadliest attack in Russia in nearly 20 years.

(Sputnik/NAN)