Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko is contradicting the claims of his ally Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukraine helped the gunmen who carried out Friday’s attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall music venue that killed at least 140 people.
Mr. Putin, while acknowledging that the perpetrators were “radical Islamists” likely linked to the Islamic State terror group, claimed Kyiv had prepared a “window” along the border for the assailants to pass through as they sought to flee from Russia. The claim was seen as an attempt to bolster Russia’s rationale for pursuing its military operation in Ukraine launched more than two years ago.
Mr. Lukashenko said the attackers first tried to flee into Belarus but failed because of stepped-up security along the border following the attack.
“We put our units on combat alert, including forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Checkpoints were set upon roads, including on roads connecting Belarus with Russia,” he said Tuesday, according to BelTA, the official Belarusian news agency.
“That’s why there was no chance they could enter Belarus. They realized it, so they took a turn and headed to the Ukraine-Russia border,” Mr. Lukashenko said.
Ukraine has strongly denied any involvement in the carnage at Crocus City Hall. The Islamic State terror group based in Afghanistan has issued multiple claims of responsibility for the attack, and U.S. officials said intelligence also indicates that ISIS was behind the strike.
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Mr. Putin, after acknowledging this week that “Islamist militants” carried out the slaughter, said he still wants to know who ordered it. Russian security officials also say they suspect Ukraine may have had a hand in organizing the attack, but have offered no proof.
Although U.S. intelligence had even warned their Russian counterparts before the attack that there were signs something was being organized, Russian officials now say Washington’s actions only raise more suspicion.
“The very fact that within the first 24 hours [after the attack], even before the fire was put out, the Americans started screaming that it wasn’t Ukraine, I think, is a piece of incriminating evidence,” said Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova in a radio interview Wednesday. ” I can’t classify it otherwise. It is evidence in and of itself.”