March 23, 2024 Shooting at Moscow concert venue leaves over 130 dead

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said "miserable" Russian President Vladimir Putin waited overnight before publicly addressing Russians, only to accuse Ukraine of having a hand in the terror attack at a concert hall near Moscow.

On Saturday, Putin told the Russian people that the perpetrators of the Crocus City Hall attack had “tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border.”

Zelensky and several Ukrainian officials have vehemently denied Ukraine has any kind of involvement in the attack.

In his nightly address, Zelensky also said that Russians "have come to Ukraine, burn our cities – and try to blame Ukraine."

Zelensky added that if the Russian people do "not ask any questions to their security and intelligence agencies, then Putin will try to turn such a situation to his personal advantage again."

More background: The terror group ISIS claimed responsibility for Russia's attack, according to a short statement published by ISIS-affiliated news agency Amaq on Telegram Friday. ISIS has not provided evidence to support the claim.

Earlier this week, Putin had dismissed warnings by the US embassy that there could be terrorist attacks on large groups, telling the Federal Security Service (FSB) that the embassy warnings were "provocative" and "outright blackmail."

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement Saturday that the United States “strongly condemns” the terrorist attack at a concert venue complex near Moscow that left at least 133 people dead.

She added that ISIS, which has claimed responsibility for the attack without providing evidence, is a “common terrorist enemy that must be defeated everywhere.”

Four suspects in Friday's terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall were detained in the Bryansk region and taken to Moscow, where they are now in the custody of Russia's Investigative Committee, Russian state media TASS reported Saturday.

The suspects were brought in two prisoner transport vehicles, which are still in the courtyard of the committee, a TASS correspondent reported. This indicates that the suspects are being interrogated and the investigation is ongoing, according to TASS.

In the coming days, investigators are expected to file a court motion asking for imprisonment as the chosen preventative measure. All four suspects face life imprisonment, TASS reports.

Russia postponed an international soccer friendly match against Paraguay following the terrorist attack near Moscow, the Russian Football Union (RFU) announced Saturday. 

The match will be held at a later date, but not in March, due to the requirement of national team players having to return to their clubs as FIFA's window ends on Tuesday, Dyukov said.

Earlier Saturday, the RFU postponed matches in all of the union’s competitions for the weekend due to the terrorist attacks. 

Some context: Russia’s international and club teams are currently banned from playing in any FIFA or UEFA-sanctioned soccer matches due the invasion of Ukraine. However, the international team is allowed to play in friendly matches against other countries.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the attack near Moscow that left more than 130 people dead, stressing ISIS is a significant global threat at a press conference Saturday at El Arish International Airport in Egypt.

Guterres called for intensified international efforts to combat the terrorist organization and prevent future strikes worldwide.

"And we encourage all countries to work with each other in order to make sure that ISIS will not have the capacity to strike again anywhere else in the world. ISIS is a terrorist organization that needs to be fought with determination, with a lot of international cooperation," he continued.

More background: The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, without providing evidence.

Starting in November, there has been a steady stream of intelligence that ISIS-K was determined to attack in Russia, according to two sources familiar with the intelligence. It was “fairly specific,” and the US intelligence community did indeed warn Russia, one of the sources said. But it’s not clear if this is directly tied to a March 7 warning by the US embassy in Moscow, which said "extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings" in the capital city.  

Over the last month, Russia has thwarted several ISIS-related incidents in March alone, according to state media agency RIA Novosti.

Leaders around the world have expressed their condolences and condemnation of the terror attack that took place on the Crocus City complex near Moscow on Friday night.

Defense Intelligence of Ukraine spokesperson Andrii Yusov firmly denied his country had anything to do with the terror attacks at a concert hall in Russia's Moscow region.

Earlier Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told the Russian people that the perpetrators had “tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the border." A handful of Russian officials have suggested without evidence that Ukraine may have been involved in the attack as well.

Yusov called Putin's comments "completely false and absurd."

He said that Russia had disregarded warnings, such as those from the US Embassy under its "duty to warn" policy, that terrorist attacks could be possible in large crowds. Putin had told Russia's Federal Security Service on Tuesday that warnings from the US were "provocative" and "outright blackmail."

A new satellite image, taken by Umbra Space's synthetic aperture radar (SAR), shows just how badly the fire that started during the terror attack on Friday night damaged the Crocus City Hall complex. 

In the image, taken at 9:26 a.m. local time Saturday, a large hole that is over 150 feet wide in diameter is seen in the roof of the complex directly over where the concert venue is located.  

About SAR images: They are not like normal satellite images. The SAR images are created by a satellite transmitting radar beams capable of passing through clouds, like the ones currently preventing satellites from imaging the area. Those radar beams bounce off objects on the ground and echo back to the satellite. What they bounce off of is then mapped out by the satellite, which is then translated into the image.  

Anastasia Rodionova, a survivor of the Moscow region's Crocus City Hall attack, told Reuters Saturday that the armed assailants were "gunning down everyone methodically in silence" inside the venue on Friday night.

"It is unbelievable. You understand only now that you are lucky, really lucky. I came home; my coat was just covered in blood,” she added.

Another survivor of the attack, Margarita, who did not provide her last name, told Reuters that “the gunshots were going on and on.”

“We went down to some kind of ground floor, some dark room, and I saw only 'exit' word shining in the darkness, and we just did not know whether to run or not. Who is there in the dark? What is there in the dark?” she said.