Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko stated on Tuesday that the suspected individuals in the Moscow concert hall attack were initially running towards Belarus, not Ukraine, after the incident on Friday.
Lukashenko’s comments oppose claims made by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has implied Ukrainian involvement in the attack by saying that the gunmen were heading towards Ukraine after the attack.
The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has been further confirmed by the United States. Ukrainian officials have also denied accusations it played any role in the atrocity, which killed nearly 140 people and injured dozens more.
During a press conference on Tuesday, Lukashenko emphasized the security measures taken by Belarus following the attack, including some measures carried out in collaboration with Russia. He mentioned that when the attackers saw the security measures, they realized they would not be able to escape into Belarus.
“That’s why they couldn’t enter Belarus. They saw it. So they turned away and went to the section of the Ukrainian-Russian border,” Lukashenko said about the perpetrators, according to Belarusian state media outlet, BELTA.
Putin and other Kremlin officials have aggressively pushed the narrative that Ukraine was involved in the attack.
On Tuesday, the head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Alexander Bortnikov, reiterated Putin’s unsupported assertion that the attack could not have been carried out by the Islamic State alone and that the Ukrainians somehow assisted, according to Russian state media, TASS.
“The primary data we received from the detainees confirms this,” he said, restating Putin’s claim that “the bandits themselves intended to go abroad, specifically to the territory of Ukraine.”
The attack occurred shortly after Putin secured another term in office, in an election widely criticized as undemocratic and manipulated by Putin and his allies.
Shortly after the attack, reports surfaced circulated that Putin had disregarded U.S. warnings of extremist attacks in Moscow days ahead of the incident.
The U.S. Embassy in Russia issued a security alert warning on March 7 that “extremists” were planning an attack in Moscow and advised individuals to avoid large gatherings over the following two days.
Three days before the attack, Putin referred to the embassy’s alerts as “provocative” and “outright blackmail” intended to damage Russian society.
