March 23, 2024, 11:59 PM ET
President Zelenskiy accuses Putin of trying to blame Ukraine for concert hall attack
From CNN's Maria Kostenko
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appeared in Kiev on March 20th.
Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Reuters
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says what awaits Russian President Vladimir Putin is “disastrous” All he did was spend the night denouncing the Russians before making a public speech. Ukraine has been implicated in a terrorist attack on a concert hall near Moscow.
On Saturday, President Putin told Russians that the perpetrators of the attack on Crocus City Hall “tried to hide and move toward Ukraine, but preliminary data indicates that they have a window on the Ukrainian side to cross the border.” “It was done,” he said.
Zelenskiy and several Ukrainian officials have strongly denied that Ukraine had any involvement in the attack.
In his evening speech, President Zelenskiy also said that the Russians were “trying to come to Ukraine, burn down our cities and blame Ukraine.”
Zelenskiy added that if the Russian people “do not ask any questions of their security and intelligence services, President Putin will again try to turn such a situation to his advantage.”
Further background: The terrorist organization ISIS claimed responsibility for the Russian attack, according to a short statement published by ISIS news agency Amaq on Telegram on Friday. ISIS has provided no evidence to support this claim.
President Putin earlier this week dismissed the US embassy's warning of a possible terrorist attack on a large group, calling the embassy's warning “provocative” and an “blatant threat,” according to the Federal Security Service. (FSB).
