AP Photo/Vitaly Smolnikov
- President Lukashenko claims Belarus and Russian security prevented Moscow shooting suspects from entering Belarus.
- Lukashenko said the suspects "took a turn" from attempting to enter Belarus.
- Despite ISIS-K claiming responsibility, Putin says the suspects may be linked to Ukraine.
Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko said his country's security, with the help of Russia's Federal Security Service, tried to prevent Crocus City Hall shooting suspects from entering Belarus.
"There was no chance they could enter Belarus," Lukashenko said, reported the state-run Belarusian Telegraph Agency. "So they took a turn and headed to the Ukraine-Russia border."
Lukashenko said his officials were in touch with the FSB director and closed a road into Belarus that the fleeing suspects could try to use. Lukashenko's statements on the concert hall terror suspects fleeing towards Belarus undermine the Kremlin's claims that the suspects tried to escape to Ukraine first, in an attempt to link Ukraine to the attack.
"Of course, it is necessary to answer the question, why, after committing the crime, the terrorists tried to go to Ukraine? Who was waiting for them there?" Putin questioned Monday.
Although ISIS-K, an ISIS affiliate, has since claimed responsibility for the attack on the Moscow concert hall on March 22, Russia's president did not acknowledge the terrorist group's involvement in the shooting until Monday.
Putin still suggests that members of ISIS-K are linked to Ukraine and that Ukraine provided entry for them, however, the suspects were apprehended in Russia — dozens of miles away from the Russia-Ukraine border.
No credible evidence has emerged to suggest that Ukraine was involved in the attack that killed at least 139 people.
Lukashenko said over the course of the attack, he had been in contact with Russia's FSB and said that he and Putin "kept in touch all the time." Lukashenko is an autocrat who violently crushed pro-democracy protests in 2020 with the Kremlin's backing.
Russian military bloggers have also made baseless claims surrounding the Crocus Hall attack, saying that ISIS-K could not execute such a deadly shooting and that the group is covering up Ukraine and Western involvement, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
When the US claimed that ISIS-K was responsible for the shooting, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused the US of providing "excuses" for Ukraine.
"The Kremlin has likely decided that the informational value of blaming Ukraine for the Crocus attack is worth whatever internal security risks and civilian casualties Russia may suffer for failing to adequately address a radical Salafi-Jihadi threat within its borders," ISW experts said.