Trial begins for suspects in Moscow concert hall attack that killed 149 people
A faction of the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the March 22 incident at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in which four gunmen shot people who were waiting for a show by a popular rock band and then set the building on fire.
President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine had a role in the attack.
Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement.
Suspects accused of involvement in a terror attack in the Crocus City Hall (Pavel Bednyakov/AP)
The Investigative Committee, Russia's top criminal investigation agency, said in June that it concluded that the attack had been 'planned and carried out in the interests of the current leadership of Ukraine in order to destabilise political situation in our country'.
It also noted the four suspected gunmen tried to flee to Ukraine afterwards.
The four, all identified as citizens of Tajikistan, were arrested hours after the attack and later appeared in a Moscow court with signs of being severely beaten.
The committee said earlier this year that six other suspects were charged in absentia and placed on Russia's wanted list for allegedly recruiting and organising the training of the four.
Other defendants in the trial were accused of helping them.
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Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
In a Ukrainian maternity ward a Russian missile delivered death
The hospital was full of patients: other expecting mothers, women who had just given birth and their newborns. Diana (23) and her husband, Oleksandr (27), tried for a year for this baby – a boy they had already named Damir. When she started experiencing extreme pain in her lower abdomen, they weren't taking any chances. But early on Tuesday, Diana called Oleksandr, who goes by Sasha, in a panic. A Russian missile had just torn through the building across the street. Diana stayed on the phone as she ran downstairs for cover. Then the second missile hit. Sasha heard Diana's phone fall. The line stayed connected, but she stopped speaking. It was after 2am. Sasha, who was 25 minutes away at home in the village of Auly, rushed to the hospital by car. Someone told him two pregnant women had been wounded and a third had already died. He frantically checked two ambulances for Diana. Then he saw a body on the ground near the entrance, covered with a sheet. Diana's green slippers were on the feet poking out from underneath. Sasha collapsed next to her and her pooling blood, which he can still smell, and started to scream. There had been no time to try to save the baby. 'We were waiting for a son and then in one minute, the ... Russians,' he said, using an expletive, his voice trailing off as he described the horrific scene. 'And they were killed.' Russia launched the missiles at Kamianske, a busy city in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, hours after US president Donald Trump announced he would give Russia 10 to 12 days to agree to a ceasefire before imposing new sanctions. Locals said the strikes were probably targeting the first building that was hit, a former medical dispensary that they said was well-known as a makeshift military base. Soldiers used it, they said, despite the maternity hospital working next door. The presence of the hospital also did not stop Russia from firing missiles indiscriminately into the centre of the city. Washington Post reporters found several military uniforms and piles of supplies in the remnants of that damaged building, which sat about 220 yards from the hospital. A sign on the door warned visitors to turn their phones on airplane mode, a common rule at military sites. A pile of dusty drone controllers sat outside. A handful of soldiers at the scene on Thursday, mostly in civilian clothes, denied it had been used as a base. They said it was a warehouse for non-lethal supplies. Only one said he was there when the missiles hit. Ukrainian military officials did not respond to requests for comment. Last Friday, the Russian defence ministry bragged that between July 26 and August 1, it struck several high-value military targets, including warehouses and drone workshops. Under international conventions on war, military personnel are required to avoid placing military objects near civilian infrastructure or in heavily populated areas. The conventions also ban attacks that place civilians at disproportionate risk of harm. 'I wouldn't dare bring her to the maternity ward if I knew there were soldiers near there,' Diana's mother, Lina Dranko, said after her funeral. 'I would have brought doctors to our home.' Sasha and Diana met in 2019 – he just home from his mandatory military service, she a new and pretty face on a visit to her mother's native village. After weeks of sharing walks and kisses, Sasha told her he wanted to celebrate one month of dating. 'We're dating?' she replied. It was October 25. The next year, he proposed on the same day – the ring a perfect fit because he had tested it on his little finger, which he knew was the right size. On September 25, 2021, they legally married. When Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, they both felt moved to perform a church wedding to consecrate their vows. The local priest told them they failed to complete mandatory rituals, including a brief fasting period. 'We said, 'Come on, it's war',' Sasha recalled. The priest gave in, and they had their second wedding ceremony the next day. As war raged across Ukraine and Russian forces advanced toward the Dnipropetrovsk region where Sasha and Diana lived, the couple tried to maintain a simple village life. Their parents helped them buy a small house, which they started renovating. Diana worked in the local grocery store, where she befriended soldiers posted to the area. Sasha continued work at the nearby steel factory. They weighed the risks of having a baby during wartime against their dream of a family. The dream won out. Six months ago, they cheered and cried when two pink lines appeared on a rapid test. They tucked the stick away in a plastic envelope for safekeeping. 'It was the happiest moment of our lives,' Sasha said. Diana began filming her belly as it grew – smiling for the camera as she ran her hands over her bump. On July 31, Diana's family placed her hands over her bump for the last time. She lay in a wooden coffin in the centre of the same room where she had filmed herself dreaming of motherhood. Sasha pressed his face to hers. Her mother, Lina, bent over her belly. Other relatives – her sister, Karina, her father, Anatolii, her nephew, Daniil – took turns caressing her face. They whispered to her and Damir, wishing them farewell. The car seat, the wooden crib, the tiny mattress decorated with the words 'It's a boy' sat in the next room. Four men carried the coffin outside, where hundreds of people were waiting, weeping, holding each other. A priest started Diana's funeral rites. The crowd followed to the cemetery. In the last moments before they covered the coffin, Lina wailed. 'I don't want to say goodbye.' 'You dreamed of having this baby.' 'I should have protected you.' They covered Diana and lowered her to the ground. The cross listed her name, birthday and death date. Below, it showed Damir's name with only a death date – he was never born. One woman became so distressed she was taken away by ambulance. Everyone else lined up to toss a handful of dirt on Diana's coffin. Then the grave diggers took out shovels to finish. At the sombre lunch reception just after, Lina looked at the room full of family and friends. 'We wish we had this gathering for Damir's baptism instead of this,' she said through tears. Outside, Sasha wept as he clutched his friend. He told him he had visited Diana hours before, then went home to clean the house for her return the next day. 'She was so scared. She was calling to say she was scared. She wanted me to be there,' he said. 'I wasn't there.' 'All I cleaned was for nothing – no one needs it. I don't need that house. I just need her. 'I really love her,' he sobbed. 'I had a reason to live – now I don't. I'm walking, but I'm not here.' His little sister Viktoriia, who is 20, leaned into his side, wrapping her arms around him.
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Donald Trump's envoy to meet Vladimir Putin ahead of deadline for Ukraine peace deal
Steve Witkoff will visit Moscow on 'Wednesday or Thursday' to meet the Russian president, Mr Trump said. His task is to 'get a deal where people stop getting killed', according to the US president. Putin has already met Mr Witkoff four times in Moscow in an attempt to broker a peace deal. But this trip to the Russian capital comes ahead of the shortened deadline set by Mr Trump for Putin to reach a ceasefire or face crippling new sanctions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday that officials are happy to meet with Mr Trump's envoy. 'We are always glad to see Mr Witkoff in Moscow,' he said. 'We consider (talks with Witkoff) important, substantive and very useful.' The US president has said the new measures could mean 'secondary tariffs' targeting Russia's remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption. 'There'll be sanctions, but they seem to be pretty good at avoiding sanctions,' Mr Trump told reporters on Sunday. He also confirmed that US nuclear submarines are 'now in the region where they have to be' after he announced on Friday that two underwater vessels would be moved towards Russian waters. 'The answer is, they are in the region, yeah, where they have to be,' he said on Sunday. The decision to move US nuclear submarines came in response to an escalating war of words online between Mr Trump and Russia's former president. Dmitry Medvedev, a key Putin ally now on Russia's security council, had aggressively criticised Mr Trump's sanctions ultimatum and reminded him of the strength of Moscow's nuclear arsenal. Mr Trump said on social media that Mr Medvedev's 'highly provocative statements' led him to dispatch the submarines 'just in case these foolish and inflammatory statements are more than just that'. It is not clear which nuclear submarines have been moved, but experts said it was likely to be nuclear-armed vessels. It is extremely rare for a US president to signal their movements, which are usually shrouded in secrecy. In response, Mr Medvedev, one of Russia's most outspoken anti-Western hawks who has long been at odds with Mr Trump, has stayed unusually quiet. Noting his silence, Andriy Yermak, Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said the reaction of the 'Russian drunk who had been threatening nuclear war' made it clear that 'Russia only understands one thing: strength'. The shift in Washington's nuclear posture towards Russia reflects its growing frustration with Moscow over its intensifying bombardment of Ukraine. Mr Trump, whose patience with Putin has worn thin, said he was 'disgusted' on Thursday by Russia's deadly drone and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. Russia fired a record number of drones in July, killing hundreds of civilians, while its forces grind forward in the country's east and have accelerated their gains for the fourth consecutive month, according to analysis. Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said on Friday that he wants peace but that his demands for ending his nearly three-and-a-half year invasion were 'unchanged'. He has demanded that Ukraine cedes complete control of four regions that Moscow has invaded and claimed to have annexed − a demand that Kyiv says is tantamount to surrender. It comes as Ukrainian drone attacks on Sunday sparked a massive fire at an oil depot in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. It marked a rare strike on the city, which is some 400 miles from the front line in Ukraine, and was part of a series of wider weekend attacks on oil refineries across Russia. Ukraine said yesterday it had charged six people including a lawmaker and a government official for embezzling funds in the purchase of drones and jamming equipment for the military. Kyiv relies on a steady supply of drones and electronic warfare systems to fight Moscow's invasion, and is also waging a crackdown on graft critical to its future in the European Union. Anti-corruption authorities said on Saturday they had uncovered a scheme offering kickbacks for purchases at inflated prices. It involved the legislator, one current and one now sacked official, a National Guard commander and two businessmen. 'In 2024-2025, an organised criminal group systematically misappropriated funds allocated by local authorities for defence needs,' the National Anti-Corruption Bureau said in a statement, adding the bribes totalled around 30pc of the contracts' value. The drone contract was worth $240,000 (€207,000) with an inflation of about $80,000, the bureau said. President Zelensky, who sparked a public furore last month for briefly scrapping the independence of two anti-corruption agencies, praised the move on Saturday after meeting the agency heads. None of the suspects has been identified. The equipment was locally manufactured.
Irish Independent
an hour ago
- Irish Independent
Memphis Barker: Vladimir Putin's sneer leader in chief Dmitry Medvedev blows hard, but the message is still sinister
When Russia's war with Ukraine began, Dmitry Medvedev found himself in an awkward position. In the grand sphere of Russian politics, the former president was best known for his efforts to seek warmer relations with the West, putting his signature on a 2010 treaty to reduce Russia's nuclear arsenal and completing its entry into the World Trade Organisation.
