A VENGEFUL Vladimir Putin blitzed Ukraine with 57 missiles and drones in THIRD night of terror as he seeks to shift blame for the Moscow massacre.
The Russian tyrant vowed to “punish” those behind the ISIS concert hall terror attack on Friday – which he is cruelly attempting to link to Kyiv.
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Poland’s armed forces said one of Russia’s cruise missiles briefly violated Polish airspace in a dramatic escalation between Moscow and Nato.
Several explosions rocked Kyiv early on Sunday, but Ukraine air defence forces destroying about a dozen missiles over the capital, said Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s military administration.
Russia has been pounding Ukraine for days in attacks portrayed by Moscow as revenge for what Russia called ‘Ukrainian’ attacks during its recent presidential election.
“For the third pre-dawn morning this week, all of Ukraine is under an air alert and has been advised to seek shelter,” U.S. Ambassador Bridget Brink said early today.
“Russia continues to indiscriminately launch drones and missiles with no regard for millions of civilians, violating international law.”
The newest strikes could be seen as a revenge-fuelled response to the deadliest terror attack to hit Russia in two decades and the deadliest in Europe to have been claimed by ISIS.
At least 133 were killed, including children, and over 120 wounded when four gunmen stormed Crocus City Hall and opened fire on the crowd before setting the venue ablaze.
Russian officials expect the death toll to rise further, with more than 100 wounded in hospital.
But now furious claims are being spewed by Russian officials, linking Ukraine to the massacre – despite an ISIS splinter cell taking responsibility.
Ukraine has denied any involvement in the rampage – and called the claims “absurd”.
In a snarling national TV address yesterday, Putin called the attack a “barbaric, terrorist act”, adding that “all four direct perpetrators … all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained”.
Russian television showed security services interrogating four bloodied men, who spoke Russian with an accent, on a road in the western Bryansk region, which borders both Ukraine and Belarus.
“They tried to escape and were travelling towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” said Putin.
Last night, Volodymyr Zelensky fumed that Putin was a “low-life” and a “b*****d” for suggesting his Ukraine was behind the massacre.
“What happened yesterday in Moscow is obviously something that Putin and other b*****ds are just trying to blame on someone else.”
He added: “That low-life Putin, instead of dealing with his Russian citizens, addressing them, was silent for a day, thinking about how to bring it to Ukraine.
“Everything is absolutely predictable.”
US officials claim they have no doubt that ISIS was involved in the attack, which they believed was masterminded by ISIS-K, a barbaric ISIS faction operating in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State quickly claimed responsibility for the massacre and has since released a twisted 90 second video of the gunmen carrying out the attack.
The Sun has chosen not to publish the disturbing footage.
Britain yesterday warned Putin not to use the Moscow attack to provoke furore in favour of his bloody war in Ukraine, which has entered its third year.
A senior Whitehall security source told The Telegraph: “Putin’s desperation to put all of this on Ukraine is unsurprising, as he tries to further dupe the Russian people whilst pretending that there is no dissent within Russia.
“He must not use this confected connection as any sort of excuse for intensifying his illegal war in Ukraine.”
Today, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt called the attack “horrific” but said Russia is “creating a smokescreen of propaganda” and that Britain has “little confidence” in what the government said.
He also told Sky News that the British intelligence service must remain “vigilant” and “on guard” for terror attacks but attempted to reassure the public, adding “we have the very best in the world”.
Ex-UK defence boss Ben Wallace described Putin as man who has “lies dripping from his lips” and who has convinced himself of a “warped” worldview.
Online troll farms, a massive state-run media operation, and more all contribute to a constant stream of uncertainty and fog of war being pumped out from the Kremlin.
Russian state TV has already been caught red-handed using a deepfake of Ukraine’s top security official’s top security official appearing to brag about Kyiv’s role in the terrorist massacre.
The AI-generated video of Oleksiy Danilov is doing the rounds online in an apparent disinformation campaign to sow fury and confusion over who was behind the shooting attack last night.
CONCERT HALL MASSACRE
On Friday night, masked men in camouflage gear wielding automatic weapons stormed the packed Crocus City Hall – opening fire and hurling explosives into a crowd.
Some 6,000 people are believed to have been inside the venue watching Russian rock band Picnic when the bloodshed began.
The gunmen began shooting civilians at point-blank range – through glass doors, turnstiles and then the concert hall itself, traumatised witnesses said.
The bodies of whole families were found, dead mothers embracing their dead children, Russian media reported.
Horrifying accounts have emerged in the wake of the shooting attack.
Witnesses described how four armed men walked calmly towards the metal detectors at Crocus City Hall, firing their automatic weapons point-blank in short bursts and terrified civilians fell screaming in a hail of bullets.
Footage showed dozens of bodies, some in pools of blood, lay motionless on the marble floors and at the main entrance.
One survivor, Natalya, said: “The shots came from behind us.
“It was loud, like a firecracker blast, fireworks, but like an automatic burst. I could hear it right behind me, not far away.”
Then Natalya ran for her life. “Everyone was screaming; everyone was running.”
Another witness said: “We huddled in a corner at the entrance. He [gunman] came up and started shooting directly at people.
“They had black hair. They were shouting at each other and it was not Russian speech.”
Another woman told how she feigned being shot – which saved her life.
She said: “They [the terrorists] were standing at the exit, we didn’t go there, but they saw us.”
“One of them came running back and started shooting at us.
“I fell on the floor, and pretended to die. A girl next to me was killed.”
Witnesses told of leaping over fire, some with their clothes melting, to escape the blaze which caused the roof to collapse as over a 100 people hid in the basement.
Russia’s security service (FSB) launched a massive manhunt to catch those responsible and have now detained 11 suspects, including four it says were “directly” involved in last night’s attack.
Two were apprehended after a car chase and two others fled into a forest before being detained – all four have been named and pictured by the FSB.
Russian security services released gruesome footage of their interrogations throughout Saturday, including a grisly video of one suspect appearing to be fed his own sliced off ear.
It has also emerged that the Russian leader rubbished warnings from the US and UK about an “imminent” terror attack just three days before.
British and US intelligence services alerted Russia earlier this month of the threat of a terror attack on Moscow – something the Kremlin sought to downplay, describing it as “provocative”.
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