Russian investigators find evidence linking Crocus City Hall massacre to Ukraine

Investigators from the Investigative Committee of Russia found evidence linking the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall with Ukraine.

The phone of one of the attackers contained photographs of people in camouflage uniforms with a Ukrainian flag standing against the backdrop of destroyed houses and a Ukrainian postage stamp with an obscene gesture, the department said.

The Investigative Committee linked the terrorist attack in Crocus near Moscow with Russian-led special military operation in Ukraine. Investigators said that the terrorists chose the concert hall to carry out the terrorist attack on the instructions of the curator. On the morning of February 24, one of the terrorists sent the curator screenshots of images of entrances to the concert hall building, as well as pictures of the access roads to it.

France insists Ukraine not involved in Crocus terror

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, when speaking with his French counterpart Sebastien Lecornu on the phone, said that there was a Ukrainian trace in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack. Lecornu, in turn, persistently tried to convince him that neither Ukraine nor the West were involved in the massacre. Lecornu shifted the blame to ISIS (a terrorist organisation, banned in Russia).

"The Kiev regime does nothing without the approval from its Western curators. We hope that in this case the French intelligence services were not behind that," Shoigu said.

Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron saw a threat in Shoigu's statement.

"Some of the comments from the Russian side were actually strange and threatening,” the French leader said.

As noted, he made such conclusions based on a "fact-based” report that Lecornu prepared following the telephone conversation with Shoigu. Macron also mentioned that France had useful information about the organisation of the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall.

Putin admitted Ukraine's involvement in the terrorist attack

During a meeting on measures taken after the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, Russian President Vladimir Putin wondered why the terrorists tried to leave for Ukraine after committing the crime, and who was waiting for them there.

"This atrocity can only be a link in a whole series of attempts by those who have been fighting our country through the hands of the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime since 2014,” the head of state said.

Russian FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov also indicated that the USA, Great Britain and Ukraine were involved in the terrorist attack at Crocus. The purpose of their participation was to destabilise the situation in Russian society, he noted.