Ukraine military spy chief says Russia knew about terror plots | Wilnesh News

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief claims that Russia was aware of a terrorist attack being planned weeks before last Friday’s massacre at Krokus City Hall in Moscow.

“The Russian Federation has known about this plot since at least February 15, 2024,” Kyrilo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence service, told a forum on Wednesday.

“I’ll tell you more, the messages came through their intelligence posts in Syria. From there it was forwarded to Moscow. So they shouldn’t tell the story that it all suddenly appeared in a strange way,” Bu Danov told news agency Kiev Strategic Forum on Wednesday Ukrainian news agency reports.

The Islamic State (IS) militant group claimed to be behind Friday’s attack in Moscow that killed 143 people. Russian authorities have arrested several people, including four suspected gunmen, who are awaiting trial on terrorism charges.

The Islamic State’s claims have not stopped senior Russian officials and pro-Kremlin media from pointing the finger at Ukraine and its Western allies, saying they are behind the attack. Russia has yet to provide evidence to support its claims, while Ukraine, the United States and the United Kingdom have dismissed the claims as “complete nonsense” and “absolutely false.”

The White House stressed that it had warned Russia weeks ago that it believed “extremists” were planning an attack. Russian citizens were warned not to attend large gatherings because the threat was “imminent”. Russia dismissed the threat in issuing the warning, with Putin saying such statements were “provocative” and intended to intimidate Russia.

Budanov claimed that Russia knew where the fighting groups would come from and which countries the attackers would pass through to reach Russia. Discussing why Russia allowed the attack to take place, Budanov said it could have been a precursor to the ouster of “several senior officials” or “the alternative is that they actually underestimated the scale of what was going to happen.”

“They thought the incident would be more localized and wanted to blame everything on Ukraine,” the intelligence official said.

Ukraine’s military intelligence chief provided no evidence to support his claims.

Shortly after the terrorist attack on Krokus City Hall – where gunmen entered the concert venue, started shooting at concertgoers and set fire to the building – Russia claimed the attack had “Ukrainian traces” despite the “Islamic State” ” claimed responsibility for this. For the massacre.

president of russia Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Monday that “radical Islamists” carried out the attack but insisted that Ukraine and its Western backers were involved without providing evidence. He said the planners’ purpose was to destabilize Russia and create panic in Russian society.

Then Russia’s FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov claimed on Tuesday that the United States, Britain and Ukraine were behind the attacksaid Russia had “factual information” that suggested this was the case, although he did not provide any specific evidence.

On the same day, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev, a close ally of Putin who is responsible for issuing guidance and recommendations on national security issues, was also asked by Russian reporters whether Ukraine or the Islamic State group were behind the attack. “Ukraine, of course,” Patrushev replied. RIA Novosti reports.

On Wednesday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova claims US’s initial rejection of Ukraine’s involvement in anything was questionable.

Despite the outpouring of commentary in the Russian news landscape by Russia’s ultra-nationalist hawks and pro-Kremlin media, the Kremlin remains aloof. Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the alleged Ukrainian links or say how Russia would respond if it confirmed Ukrainian involvement.

Peskov told CNBC on Wednesday that the Kremlin was awaiting the results of the investigation before commenting, saying in an email: “The investigation is ongoing. The final version has not yet been released.”

Budanov said the Kremlin had repeatedly changed its version of events at Krokus City Hall because it was eager to create what it called a “Ukrainian trace” in the attack.

“The explanations of Patrushev and Bortnikov accuse me personally and Ukraine as a whole of doing all this. This is nonsense. By the way, if we touch this painful issue, even if it is an enemy , I also disapprove of terrorist attacks targeting civilians in principle,” Budanov said.

Budanov said Russia accused Ukraine of trying to create chaos, but in fact it caused the chaos itself and believed it could control the situation.

“(There is a saying) circulating in the intelligence community: everyone is trying to create controlled chaos. Absolutely all more or less serious organizations have tried to do this at different times. And the axiom is that none of them can control chaos. Likewise. It happened here, too,” he said.