UPDATE - Ukraine denies involvement in deadly concert hall shooting in Russia

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT BY DEFENSE INTELLIGENCE OF UKRAINE

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) — Ukraine said Friday that it was not involved in a deadly shooting attack that target a concert hall in Russia's Moscow region.

"Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with the shooting/explosions in the Crocus City Hall (Moscow Region, Russia). It makes no sense whatsoever," Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement on X following the late-night shooting that Russia has declared a "terrorist attack."

Underlining that Kyiv has been at war with Moscow for over two years and that the Russia-Ukraine war would be decided "only on the battlefield," Podolyak said "terrorist attacks do not solve any problems."

He further said that Ukraine never resorted to the use of terrorist methods, and that its government heard of public warnings from foreign embassies in Moscow about the possibility of such incidents long before the shooting in Crocus City Hall took place.

"There is not the slightest doubt that the events in the Moscow suburbs will contribute to a sharp increase in military propaganda, accelerated militarization, expanded mobilization, and, ultimately, the scaling up of the war. And also to justify manifest genocidal strikes against the civilian population of Ukraine," he added.

In a separate statement, Ukraine's Defense Intelligence (HUR) claimed the shooting to be a "planned and deliberate provocation by the Russian special services" at the behest of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Its purpose is to justify even tougher strikes on Ukraine and total mobilization in Russia. The public execution of people in Moscow should be understood as Putin's threat of an even greater escalation and expansion of the war," the HUR said on Telegram.