Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to shift the blame for the attack on a concert hall near Moscow onto others, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday in a recording published on Saturday evening. This is the Ukrainian leader's first comment after Friday's attack. Zelensky said the hundreds of thousands of “terrorists” Putin sent to Ukraine “would certainly be enough” to stop terrorists on Russian soil.
– What happened yesterday in Moscow is obvious, and Putin and other scum are just trying to shift the blame to someone else. They always have the same methods. It was already. There were bombed houses, shootings and explosions. And they always blame others, Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech posted on social media.
– They come to Ukraine, burn our cities and try to blame Ukraine. They torture and rape our people – and blame them for it. They brought hundreds of thousands of their own terrorists here on Ukrainian soil to fight against us and they don't care what happens in their own country, he said.
Zelensky: Putin will try to turn similar situations to his advantage more than once
Zelensky noted that Putin only addressed his citizens the day after the terrorist attack on the Crocus City Hall concert hall in Krasnogorsk because “he was thinking how to connect it with Ukraine.” – It's all very predictable – he noted. The president of Ukraine said that the hundreds of thousands of Russians fighting against his country are enough to defeat terrorists inside the country. – If Russians are ready to die in silence in “crocuses” and not ask any questions to their secret services, Putin will try more than once to turn similar situations to the advantage of his personal power – he said. Zelensky said that terrorists always have to lose and thanked people who fight terror.
Main photo source: UKRAINE PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/PAP/EPA