Russia observed a national day of mourning on Sunday, after at least 137 people were killed and more than 140 wounded in an attack on a packed concert hall in Moscow.
On Friday, a group of gunmen dressed in combat gear stormed the Crocus City Hall in the west of the Russian capital and sprayed crowds with gunfire, leaving the venue smouldering with a collapsed roof.
Vladimir Putin said all four assailants had been arrested, declaring Sunday a day of national mourning.
Events across the country were cancelled on Sunday, with flags at half-mast and TV entertainment suspended, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Flowers have piled up at a memorial near the wrecked concert hall.
Russia’s president on Saturday made an unsubstantiated claim that Kyiv may have been involved in the attack as the suspects were trying to flee to Ukraine.
Kyiv blasted allegations of Ukrainian involvement as “absurd”.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the bloodbath in a social media post, saying it attacked a large gathering of “Christians” in Krasnogorsk on Moscow’s outskirts.
US intelligence agents knew the terror group’s branch in Afghanistan was planning an attack in Moscow, sharing this information with Russian officials, the AP news agency reported.
Rescue operations have “ceased”, but searches continue, according to authorities, as hundreds of Moscovites have lined up to donate blood to those injured.
Some still do not know if their loved ones who went to the event are alive.
Russian security services say they have detained eleven foreign nationals in connection to the attack.
In a speech on Saturday, Putin said: “The criminals were cold-blooded and purposefully going to kill, shoot our citizens and our children at point-blank range.
“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them from the Ukrainian side to cross the state border.
“Whoever they are, whoever is guiding them. I repeat: we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists,” he added.
Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement, concerned the Kremlin will use the attack to escalate the war.
“Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia),” wrote Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president on X. “It makes no sense whatsoever.”
“Everything in this war will be decided only on the battlefield…Terrorist attacks do not solve any problems,” he continued.
