Ukraine has nothing to do with terror attack near Moscow – presidential aide

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukraine's Presidential Office, has said that Ukraine has nothing to do with a shooting incident at the Crocus City Hall venue in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow.

Podolyak said this in a post on his X account, Ukrinform reports.

"Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever. First of all, Ukraine has been fighting with the Russian army for more than two years. And everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield," he said.

Read also: Ukraine intel: Terrorist attack near Moscow a deliberate provocation by Putin's regime

Secondly, according to him, Ukraine has never used terrorist methods of war, unlike Russia.

"By the way, Russia itself uses terrorist attacks in the current war against Ukraine and earlier in its history attacked its own citizens to initiate subsequent 'counter-terrorist actions' against protesting ethnic groups. Suffice it to recall the events on the Kashirskoye highway (Moscow) and in Volgodonsk," Podolyak said.

And thirdly, he added, long before this terrorist attack - on March 9, there were "public warnings from foreign embassies stationed in Moscow about the possibility of such bloody excesses."

"As a conclusion: there is not the slightest doubt that the events in the Moscow suburbs will contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war. And also to justify manifest genocidal strikes against the civilian population of Ukraine," Podolyak said.

According to media reports, at least 40 people were killed and 140 injured when gunmen dressed in camouflage opened fire with automatic weapons at people at a concert in the Crocus City Hall near Moscow.

Andrii Yusov, a representative of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, said that a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk near Moscow was a deliberate provocation committed by the Putin regime.