The chief suspects in last week's terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall outside Moscow have testified that their orders came from a mystery man who told them to flee to Ukraine afterwards, the Russian Investigative Committee announced on Friday.
Security services detained the four suspected perpetrators near the Ukrainian border last Saturday. The attack claimed 144 lives and left over 200 people hospitalized.
In their initial testimonies and during their subsequent interrogations, the suspects said the attacks were prepared in coordination with “a man who introduced himself to them under a pseudonym,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement. He communicated with them by voice messages sent over Telegram, it added.
“On the instructions of the coordinator, after committing the crime, the terrorists drove in a car towards the Russian-Ukrainian border to subsequently cross it and arrive in Kiev to receive the promised reward,” the law enforcement agency said.
The Investigative Committee has said it is continuing to “verify the involvement of representatives of Ukrainian special services in organizing and financing the terrorist attack.”
Russian special forces intercepted the four suspected perpetrators last Saturday, en route to the Ukrainian border. They were identified as nationals of Tajikistan and initially described by officials as “radical Islamists.”
The terrorist group Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) has claimed responsibility for the massacre. The US and EU have insisted that ISIS-K was the sole culprit and that Ukraine was in no way involved.
Moscow, however, remains skeptical. President Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and the heads of the FSB and the Investigative Committee have all claimed that multiple clues point to Kiev’s involvement. Lavrov described the West’s insistence on Ukraine’s innocence as suspicious in itself.
On Thursday, the Investigative Committee revealed that the four suspects had received “significant sums of money” from Ukraine, in the form of cryptocurrency. The funds were then used to prepare the attack on Crocus City Hall, the agency said.
Foreign fighter in Ukraine confirms mercenary deaths
At least 20 Polish nationals fighting for Kiev have been killed in battle, according to one soldier of Ukraine’s foreign legion, who spoke to Polish radio on Friday.
Piotr Mitkiewicz joined the ‘International Territorial Defense Legion of Ukraine’ in May 2022 and has frequently spoken to Polish media about his experiences. His latest testimonial was on Krakow-based RMF radio’s Morning Talk.
©YouTube/RMF FM
“There are not many,” he said when asked how many Poles were fighting for Ukraine. “I have been there the longest and I know most of those who are there. But I will say this: Up to 20 of us have died.”
Mitkiewicz’s estimate is far lower than official Russian accounts, however. Earlier this month, the Russian Defense Ministry put the number of Polish mercenaries killed since the start of the conflict at 1,497 – more than half of the 2,960 that have enlisted for Ukraine’s cause.
The Polish mercenary also gave a harrowing account of what it’s like to be on the battlefield.
“Everything wants to kill you,” he told RMF. “There are mines under your feet. A man can get within 30 meters of you and throw a grenade. At 100 meters, there is a man with a [Kalashnikov]. There’s a guy standing 400 meters away with a heavy machine gun, he also wants to kill you. There’s a sniper 800 meters away. A tank is shooting from two kilometers away, and there’s artillery 10km away, also shooting at you.”
First Person View (FPV) drones are the latest battlefield horror, Mitkiewicz said, noting that they have “changed all tactics, changed this war.”
Commercial remotely piloted UAVs were initially used for observation, until both the Russians and Ukrainians began equipping them with improvised munitions. Purpose-built killer drones are now being used by both militaries.
Moscow has estimated that at least 13,387 foreign fighters have taken up arms on behalf of Kiev, of which 5,962 have been killed. While Poland has accounted for most of the mercenaries, the US was second on the list, with 1,113 fighters – of which at least 491 have been killed, according to Russian military estimates.
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