Zelensky hits back after Russia links Ukraine to concert attack

The US had confirmed that it passed on intelligence of a threat earlier this month.

As news of the Moscow concert hall attack broke on Friday, Ukrainians knew what was coming: Kyiv would be blamed.

The next thing they expected was more drones and more missiles.

The accusations began almost immediately.

They were just hints at first, until President Vladimir Putin openly claimed that the men who attacked Moscow had tried to flee to Ukraine, helped by contacts there.

Then shortly before dawn on Sunday came the sound of explosions in Kyiv.

When Mr Putin made his comments on Saturday in an address to the Russian nation, Islamic State group (IS) extremists had already announced they had carried out the killings.

The US had confirmed that it passed on intelligence of a threat earlier this month.

Now IS have released a hideously graphic video of their massacre, filmed on bodycams and including shouts of "God is Greatest" from the attackers.

In his evening statement on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was visibly angry that his country was being blamed.

He described the Russian president and others in Moscow as "scum" for linking the attack there to Kyiv.

He suggested a "miserable" Russian leader was more concerned about pinning the attack on Kyiv than reassuring his own citizens.

Mr Zelensky then turned the tables on Moscow, saying it had sent "hundreds of thousands of [its own] terrorists" to Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022.