NEW DELHI: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of attempting to deflect responsibility onto Kyiv for the tragic Moscow concert hall attack, which claimed the lives of 133 individuals.
“What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious: Putin and the other scum are just trying to blame it on someone else,” Zelenskyy said, AFP reported.
Zelenskyy’s remarks came in response to Putin’s assertion that the suspects in the attack were fleeing towards Ukraine. In a televised address on Saturday, Putin claimed that “a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.”
Reacting sharply to Putin’s claims, Zelenskyy condemned them as part of a pattern of blame-shifting by the Russian leadership. “That low-life Putin, instead of dealing with his Russian citizens, addressing them, was silent for a day, thinking about how to bring it to Ukraine,” said the Ukrainian president.
Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov had earlier told Reuters: “Ukraine was of course not involved in this terror attack. Ukraine is defending its sovereignty from Russian invaders, liberating its own territory and is fighting with the occupiers’ army and military targets, not civilians.”
A senior Russian lawmaker, Andrei Kartapolov, said that if Ukraine was involved, then Russia must deliver a “worthy, clear and concrete” reply on the battlefield.
(With inputs from agencies)