Moscow concert hall attackers first headed for Belarus, says Lukashenko, contradicting Putin claim they fled to Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin said Ukraine had prepared a ‘window’ for the attackers to cross the border – currently a war zone
- Belarusian president, a close Putin ally, said Belarus and Russia had coordinated actions as suspects fled to Bryansk, bordering Ukraine and Belarus
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that the gunmen who attacked Moscow’s Crocus City Hall music venue on Friday tried initially to flee to Belarus, not Ukraine as Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin have insisted.
Ukraine has vehemently denied involvement but two of Putin’s most powerful allies, Security Council chairman Nikolai Patrushev and state Federal Security Service (FSB) head Alexander Bortnikov, on Tuesday both directly blamed Kyiv for the attack, albeit without producing any evidence.
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He said Belarus had quickly set up checkpoints at the border.
“That’s why they couldn’t enter Belarus. They saw that, so they turned away and went to the area of the Ukrainian-Russian border,” he was quoted as saying by the state news agency BelTA.
“Putin and I didn’t sleep for a day,” he added. “There was constant interaction.”
