While Russia observes this Sunday March 24 a day of national mourning after the attack on a concert hall in the suburbs of Moscow, Friday March 22, the toll of this massacre has been revised upwards. According to investigators, 137 people, including three children, died in this attack claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State. A previous report reported 133 deaths. The Russian Investigative Committee said 62 bodies had been identified so far.
Investigators also announced that two assault rifles and a large quantity of ammunition were found at the scene. The jihadists targeted the Crocus City Hall, a 13,000 m2 concert hall located in Krasnogorsk, on the northwest exit of the Russian capital.
11 people were arrested on Saturday, including four attackers, in the Bryansk region, bordering Belarus and Ukraine, according to the Kremlin.
During a televised address on Saturday March 23, Vladimir Putin denounced a “barbaric terrorist act”. Without mentioning the claim made by Daesh, the Russian president said that all the arrested attackers were trying to flee to Ukraine. “They were heading towards Ukraine where, according to preliminary data (from investigators), a window had been prepared for them to cross the border,” he accused before assuring that “those who are behind these terrorists” would be “punished” and that they would not have “an enviable destiny”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday accused Vladimir Putin of wanting to “shift the blame” onto his country. Earlier in the day, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he hoped that this attack would not become “a pretext” for an “escalation of violence”, in a clear allusion to the Russian offensive in Ukraine.