At least 15 people, including policemen and a priest, were killed and several others injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire at synagogues, churches, and a police post in Russia’s North Caucasus region of Dagestan on Sunday, the region’s governor said.

The simultaneous attacks occurred in Dagestan’s largest city of Makhachkala and in the coastal city of Derbent with Governor Sergei Melikov calling it a “terrorist attack”.

Officials said that the police personnel had killed four gunmen in Makhachkala and two in Derbent.

Melikov said that among the dead, in addition to the police officers, were several civilians, including an Orthodox priest who had worked in Derbent for more than 40 years.

“This evening in Derbent and Makhachkala unknown (attackers) made attempts to destabilise the situation in society,” Melikov wrote on Telegram.

“We know who is behind these terrorist attacks and what objective they are pursuing,” he added later, without specifying but referring to the Russia-Ukraine war.

“We must understand that war comes to our homes too. We felt it, but today we face it,” he said.

Melikov said the “active phase” of operations in Derbent and Makhachkala had ended and that “six bandits have been liquidated”.

The authorities will try to find “all the members of these sleeper cells who prepared (the attacks) and who were prepared, including abroad”, he added.

He also said that June 24-26 have been declared days of mourning in Dagestan, with flags lowered to half-staff and all entertainment events cancelled.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said it had opened criminal probes over “acts of terror” in Dagestan. There, however, was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks.

Russia’s state media cited law enforcement as saying that among the attackers had been two sons of the head of central Dagestan’s Sergokala district, who had been detained.

In Derbent, authorities were quoted as saying that both the synagogue and church were set on fire.

The incident comes three months after 145 people were killed in an attack claimed by the Islamic State on a concert hall near Moscow, Russia’s worst terrorist attack in years.

People take shelter inside a metro station during a Russian military attack, amid Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine, June 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Russia pummelled Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a large-scale drone and missile attack Saturday, injuring at least 19 people, local officials said.

The Ukrainian military reported that it had downed 35 out of the 53 missiles launched at targets across the country overnight on June 1, as well as 46 out of 47 attack drones.

Injuries were reported by officials across the country, including in Ukraine’s western Lviv region and the central Dnipropetrovsk region.

Twelve people, including eight children, were hospitalised after a strike close to two houses where they were sheltering in the Kharkiv region, said Governor Oleh Syniehubov.

The strikes were part of a series of sustained attacks by Russia against Ukraine’s power grid, which has been ongoing since March.

Ukraine’s largest private energy firm, DTEK said that two of its power plants had been seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company’s plants in two and a half months.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Energy Minister, Herman Halushchenko, said in a statement on social media that energy infrastructure in the Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Kirovohrad and Ivano-Frankivsk regions had also been targeted.

Damage to Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in recent weeks has forced leaders of the war-ravaged country to institute nationwide rolling blackouts. Without adequate air defences to counter assaults and allow for repairs, the shortages could still worsen as need spikes in late summer and the bitter-cold winter.

In response to the strikes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated Kyiv’s need for additional air defense systems from its Western allies.

“Civilians, infrastructure and energy facilities. This is what Russia is constantly at war with,” he said in a post Saturday on X, formerly Twitter.

“Our partners know exactly what is needed for this. Additional Patriot and other modern air defence systems for Ukraine. Accelerating and expanding the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine. Providing our warriors with all the necessary capabilities.” Elsewhere, five civilians died amid Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, said the area’s Moscow-installed leader Denis Pushilin. Another three people were injured, he said.

The Russian Defence Ministry also said that it had shot down two Ukrainian drones on Saturday morning over Russia’s Belgorod region. No casualties were reported.

Kyiv:

Russia launched a “massive” missile strike at Ukraine overnight, damaging four power plants in the latest barrage targeting the country’s energy supply, officials in Kyiv said on Saturday.

Moscow has launched some of its largest ever strikes on Ukraine’s energy facilities in recent months, knocking out a significant chunk of production, and triggering blackouts and energy rationing across the country.

Ukraine also fired more than 60 drones at southern Russia overnight, Moscow said, in one of its largest ever overnight drone attacks. Kyiv claimed to have hit two oil refineries and a military air base.

“Russian armed forces staged another massive missile attack on Ukraine,” the Ukrainian army said in its regular morning update.

“The enemy has once again attacked the country’s energy infrastructure. In particular, facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv regions were attacked. There is damage to equipment,” Energy Minister German Galushchenko said in a Facebook post.

The Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions are in Ukraine’s west, bordering the EU and hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines. 

Ukraine’s air force said Moscow fired 34 missiles, of which 21 were shot down.

Kyiv says Moscow is escalating its attacks from the air and on land ahead of nationwide celebrations on May 9, when Russia marks victory in World War II, and while Ukraine awaits the arrival of crucial US weapons.

– Energy rationing –

The DTEK power operator said equipment at four of its thermal power plants was “severely damaged” in the overnight strikes.

State electricity operator Ukrenergo said it had disconnected its main overhead power line in the west of the country as a preventative measure.

Officials asked energy users to limit their power usage.

“We ask all consumers to consume electricity sparingly. Industry is asked to maximise electricity imports and use alternative power sources,” Ukrenergo said in a statement.

The head of the western Lviv region called on residents not to use kettles, irons, washing machines and microwaves between 7:00pm and 10:00pm to preserve limited energy supplies.

Separate shelling on a village close to the Russian border in the northeastern Kharkiv region killed one person on Saturday, Ukraine’s state emergency services agency said.

One person was also killed and eight wounded in shelling of the southern Kherson region, Ukraine’s national police said.

The overnight missile strikes injured two people in the central city of Kryvyi Rih, regional governor Sergiy Lysak said, and wounded one in the northeastern Kharkiv region, emergency services said.

– 68 drones downed –

Ukraine also launched its own massive drone attack on Russia’s southern Krasnodar region overnight.

A Ukrainian defence source told AFP its drones had hit two oil refineries and a military airfield in the region, just east of the annexed Crimean peninsula.

“Ukrainian drones struck the atmospheric distillation columns of the Ilsky and Slovyansky refineries. These are key technological facilities,” the source said.

Russian officials in the Krasnodar region reported a fire at an oil refinery in the town of Slavyansk-on-Kuban.

The refinery suspended operations as a result, Russian state media reported, citing a company representative.

Videos and photos on social media showed a large fire raging overnight at the site after a series of blasts.

Moscow said earlier that Ukraine had launched one of its largest ever attempted overnight drone attacks on the Krasnodar region.

“Air defences destroyed and intercepted 66 Ukrainian drones over the territory of the Krasnodar region and two over the Crimean peninsula,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

Kyiv has hit several Russian oil refineries in the western part of the country in recent months, despite reports of concern in Washington that the strikes could be seen as escalatory and might drive up global oil prices.

Ukraine says targeting Russia’s vital energy sector is legitimate as it is a source of fuel and funds for the Russian army.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

People gather near a makeshift memorial near the Crocus City Hall following a deadly attack on the concert venue outside Moscow, Russia, March 29, 2024. REUTERS/Evgenia Novozhenina
| Photo Credit: EVGENIA NOVOZHENINA

Nine persons have been detained by Tajikistan’s state security service over suspected contact with the perpetrators of last week’s attack by gunmen on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 144 people, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti said on March 29.

“Nine residents of the Vakhdat district were detained for contact with the persons who committed the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall on March 22,” the agency reported, citing information from an unnamed source in Tajikistan’s special services, who said that Russian security forces were also involved in the operation to detain the suspects.

Editorial |Terror in Moscow: On concerns over the Islamic State

Those detained are also suspected of having connections with the Islamic State group, according to RIA Novosti.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said on Thursday it had detained another suspect in relation to the raid on Crocus City Hall, on suspicion of being involved in financing the attack. It did not give further details of the suspect’s identity or alleged actions.

Russian officials previously said that 11 suspects had been arrested, including four who allegedly carried out the attack. Those four, identified as Tajik nationals, appeared in a Moscow court on Sunday on terrorism charges and showed signs of severe beatings. One appeared to be barely conscious during the hearing.

A faction of the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the massacre. But Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have persistently claimed, without presenting evidence, that Ukraine and the West had a role in the attack.

The Investigative Committee statement said it has “confirmed data that the perpetrators of the terrorist attack received significant amounts of money and cryptocurrency from Ukraine, which were used in preparing the crime.”

Ukraine denies involvement and its officials claim that Moscow is pushing the allegation as a pretext to intensify its fighting in Ukraine.

The death toll from the raid continues to rise, with the number of deaths increasing to 144 on Friday when a severely injured victim died in a hospital, according to Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko.

On the streets of Moscow on Sunday, there was shock, grief and anger as Russia observed a day of national mourning after the deadliest attack in the country for two decades.

And as mourners laid flowers at tributes and lit candles in churches, there were mixed feelings over President Vladimir Putin’s suggestion of a Ukrainian connection to the attack which killed more than 130 concertgoers.

“I’m still in shock,” 35-year-old lawyer Ruslana Baranovskaya said on a street running off the capital’s famed Red Square. “It’s a tragedy that crushed me mentally.”

Across the square — which was closed to the public — a flag was being flown at half-mast above the Kremlin.

At least 137 people, including three children, were killed when armed gunmen stormed the Crocus City Hall concert hall on Friday evening, before setting fire to the building.

The Islamic State (IS) group has claimed responsibility on multiple occasions and published a graphic video of the gunmen carrying out the attack.

Mr. Putin has not commented on IS’s claims, but did say four suspected gunmen who had been arrested were trying to flee to Ukraine. And the FSB security service said the attackers had “contacts” on the other side of the border.

In Moscow, Russians were divided on the claims of a link to Ukraine — which has been denied both by Kyiv and by the United States.

“I’m not inclined to believe the version about Ukraine’s involvement,” said Vamig Aliyev, a 22-year-old medical student whose parents are Muslims and who often went to the concert hall.

Others, however, wondered if Kyiv was to blame.

‘War on every corner’

“The war is going on in every corner of the country, not just on TV,” said Valery Chernov, a 52-year-old shopkeeper.

“It’s hard to say who is behind all this: enemies of Russia for sure, enemies of Putin who want to destabilise the order and power, so that people start to doubt that they are protected by their government.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last week that Russia was in “a state of war” with Ukraine — escalating the official language used to talk about the campaign.

“It started as a special military operation, but as soon as this bunch was formed there, when the collective West became a participant on Ukraine’s side, for us it already became a war,” he said.

In Washington, the White House insisted on Sunday that Kyiv did not have any role in the massacre.
“ISIS bears sole responsibility for this attack. There was no Ukrainian involvement whatsoever,” said White House National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson, using an acronym for the IS group.

More than 5,000 people in Moscow and the surrounding region rushed to donate blood for the hospitalised after the attack, officials said on Sunday.

And more and more black billboards with the words “Crocus City Hall” or “We mourn” were replacing advertising hoardings on the sides of buildings and in metro stations.

Mourners poured to the concert hall in northwest Moscow, laying bouquets of red roses and carnations outside the venue.

‘Beslan mourns’

The attack is the deadliest in Russia since the Beslan school siege in 2004. In the sports hall of that town’s School No. 1 — 1,500 kilometre south of Moscow — now a memorial to the victims of the siege, mourners laid out candles in tribute, photos shared on social media showed.

The candles were formed to read: “Moscow. We mourn. Beslan.” For many in the capital, the grief was still raw.
“It’s hard for me to talk or even remember. Honestly speaking, I have bad dreams now,” said Moscow resident Alyona, 39.

Meanwhile, some had questions. “The U.S. and Britain warned their citizens,” Ms. Baranovskaya said, referring to a March 7 security alert issued by several western embassies about an imminent attack in the Russian capital.
“The question is why didn’t our security services know?” she asked.

Just three days before the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin had publicly dismissed the Western warnings as a “provocation” designed to “intimidate and destabilise Russian society.” There was also fear among many on the streets.

“I feel unsafe, that I could go somewhere and be killed. It’s scary,” Ms. Baranovskaya said.

“There is a sense that we have to be careful. It’s not a good idea to go into the metro now,” said Mr. Aliyev, the medical student. Even as he doubted the Kremlin’s version of events, he said Russian society would come together after the attack.

“Such incidents unite us to overcome obstacles together.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday called an attack on a concert hall that killed more than 100 a “barbaric terrorist act” and announced a day of national mourning.

In a televised address to the nation, Putin said: “I am speaking to you today in connection with the bloody, barbaric terrorist act, the victims of which were dozens of innocent, peaceful people. … I declare 24 March a day of national mourning.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said that India strongly condemns the terror attack in Moscow and stands in solidarity with the government and the people of Russia in this hour of grief.

Terrorists attacked a large concert hall in Moscow yesterday and sprayed the crowd with gunfire, killing more than 60 people, injuring over 100 and setting fire to the venue in a brazen attack.

“We strongly condemn the heinous terrorist attack in Moscow. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims,” PM Modi said in a post on X.

We strongly condemn the heinous terrorist attack in Moscow. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims. India stands in solidarity with the government and the people of the Russian Federation in this hour of grief.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 23, 2024

“India stands in solidarity with the government and the people of the Russian Federation in this hour of grief,” he said.

Media reports said the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement posted on its affiliated channels on social media.

Russian news agencies reported multiple casualties after a shooting incident at a concert venue near Moscow on Friday.

Here’s what is known about the shooting so far:

Unidentified gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk near Moscow on Friday evening during a concert of the band “Picnic”, TASS reported.

Preliminary information suggested machine guns were used in the shooting, TASS reported.

Eyewitnesses told Russian agencies there were many injured and dead.

Video posted online by Russian news agencies showed billowing clouds of smoke and flames rising from the venue building. TASS reported that people remain inside the building, which is almost completely engulfed in flames.

Special units of Russia’s national guard as well as police and firefighters are on the scene, TASS said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)