Leaders of Ukrainian organizations discuss latest wave of violence in Russia

Leaders of Ukrainian organizations in Italy and Australia commented on the recent wave of violence in Russia – a terrorist attack in a concert hall in Moscow Oblast, in which 137 Russians were killed and for which ISIS has claimed responsibility.

Despite this, Putin is attempting to blame Ukraine for the terrorist attack. The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) condemned the Kremlin’s attempts to link Kyiv to the attack in Moscow.

“As noted by Ukraine’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Putin has lied about so many things – the 2004 Beslan school siege, assassination of Russian journalist Politkovskaya in 2006, the torture and prison death of Sergiy Magnitsky in 2009, Russian soldiers occupying Crimea, the shooting down of MH17, his intention to invade Ukraine, and much, much more. But there is no evidence to link Ukraine to this attack. It is a means by which Putin will most likely justify his continued brutal war in Ukraine, and seek to inflict even more pain, death and destruction on its innocent people,” said Stefan Romaniw, the UWC First Vice President and Co-Chair of the AFUO.

On the day of the terrorist attack in Moscow, Russia carried out its largest assault on Ukraine in recent times, emphasized Romaniw. “The AFUO calls on the Australian media to be critical about Putin’s suggestions that Ukraine was behind the attack,” the UWC First Vice President said.

Russia has reached a new level of cruelty, stated Oles Horodetskyy, the president of the Christian Association of Ukrainians and Ukrainian community leader in Rome, commenting on the terrorist act during the Daily Journal news program on Italy’s Channel 4.

“In response to questions about torture of detainees, I noted that in Russia, detainees have always been tortured, but now they have reached a new level of cruelty and do it publicly, which is horrifying and unthinkable for any rule-of-law country. I emphasized that there is no evidence linking Ukraine to this tragedy, but we see how the Russian authorities, Putin, Medvedev, and their propaganda, are trying to blame Ukraine to further consolidate Russians around Putin in his criminal war against Ukraine. It is worth remembering that such terrorist acts are carried out by Russia in Ukraine every day,” said Horodetskyy.

Horodetskyy also expressed doubts about who really was behind the attack. “At the end of the program [on Italian TV – ed.], each participant was asked to respond with one word about who is behind the terrorist attack. My answer was: either ISIS or the new ‘Ryazan sugar’ of the FSB [a series of terrorist acts in Russian cities Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in 1999 – ed.].”