The White House on Sunday responded to a suggestion from Russian President Vladimir Putin that there was a Kyiv connection to an attack on a Moscow concert hall, declaring Ukraine had “no involvement whatsoever,” with the massacre that killed 130 people.
“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” said White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson.
US Vice President Kamala Harris also said during an interview with ABC News on Sunday that there was “no” evidence that Ukraine was involved.
“ISIS-K is actually, by all accounts, responsible for what happened,” she said.
The Islamic State’s Afghanistan branch, ISIS-Khorasan, claimed responsibility for the attack.
At least 137 people were killed when gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall in Moscow’s Krasnogorsk suburb and set fire to the building on Friday evening.
ISIS on Saturday wrote on Telegram that the attack was “carried out by four IS fighters armed with machine guns, a pistol, knives, and firebombs,” in “the raging war” with “countries fighting Islam.”
A short video apparently filmed by the gunmen has been posted on social media accounts normally used by ISIS, the SITE intelligence group said.
Putin has vowed to punish those behind the “barbaric terrorist attack” but made no mention of ISIS’ claim of responsibility in his public remarks.
“They tried to escape and were traveling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” he said in a televised statement on Saturday.
Kyiv has strongly denied any connection and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Putin of trying to shift the blame onto them.
