White House rules out any Ukrainian role in Moscow concert attack

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House rejected on Friday any Ukrainian role in a shocking shooting attack on a Moscow concert hall in which dozens of people are feared to have been killed.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said "there's no indication" that Ukraine was involved in the "terrible" attack, stating quickly after the news broke that he "would disabuse you at this early hour of any connection to Ukraine."

"The images are just horrible and just hard to watch and our thoughts obviously going to be with the victims of this terrible, terrible shooting attack," he told reporters.

"There's some moms, and dads, and brothers, and sisters, and sons, and daughters that haven't gotten the news yet. And this is going to be a tough day. So our thoughts are with them," he added.

The shooting took place at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, the administrative center of the Moscow region, when the music band Picnic was performing a concert, according to preliminary information. Later, an explosion was also reported.

Moscow special forces, police, as well as firefighters, have been deployed to the scene of the incident.

The US Embassy in the Russian capital warned on March 7 of "reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow," pointing specifically of the risk to concerts. It urged US citizens to avoid large gatherings for the next 48 hours.

Asked about the alert, Kirby said it was unrelated to the attack that unfolded Friday.

"I'm not aware of any advance knowledge that we had of this terrible attack," he said. "I'll let the State Department speak to that, but I don't think that was related to this specific attack."