Vladimir Putin continues to want to turn his gaze towards kyiv regarding Friday’s attack near Moscow. For the first time, the Russian president acknowledged Monday that the attack, claimed three days ago by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), had been committed by “radical Islamists”, while continuing to imply a link with Ukraine.
kyiv and the West have vigorously denied any relationship between the Ukrainian authorities and the perpetrators of this attack which, according to a new report announced Monday evening, left at least 139 dead and 182 injured. Vladimir Putin, more than two years after the start of his large-scale offensive against kyiv, nevertheless once again raised this idea which he had already mentioned this weekend.
“What interests us is the sponsor”
“We know that (this) crime was committed by radical Islamists with an ideology against which the Islamic world itself has been fighting for centuries,” declared the master of the Kremlin during a government meeting. “What interests us is the sponsor.” “Why did the terrorists, after their crime, try to leave for Ukraine? Who was waiting for them there? Those who support the Kiev regime do not want to be accomplices of terror and supporters of terrorism, but many questions arise,” he said.
“We wonder who benefits from this? This atrocity may be a new episode in the series of attempts by those who, since 2014, have been fighting our country through the neo-Nazi regime in kyiv,” said Vladimir Putin. “And the Nazis, it is well known, never disdained using the dirtiest and most inhumane methods to achieve their goals,” he said, repeating his story claiming that the offensive in Ukraine aims to overthrow a neo-Nazi regime.
For Zelensky, Putin is “sick and cynical”
“Putin is talking to himself again, and it was broadcast on television again. And again he blames Ukraine. He is a sick and cynical creature,” reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in his daily evening speech.
The Islamic State group, which Russia is fighting in Syria and which is active in the Russian Caucasus, claimed responsibility for the attack, but Russian authorities assure that the alleged killers were trying to reach Ukrainian territory after the attack. kyiv denied any “link with the incident”. The United States also rejected the Russian president’s version.