Moscow, Mar 25: The European Union has no evidence that would suggest Ukraine’s connection to the deadly terrorist attack in Russia, following the information that the perpetrators tried to escape to Ukraine after committing the attack, European Commission foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said on Monday.

“We reject this. There is nothing to indicate or prove that Ukraine has a connection to this attack. We call on the Russian authorities not to use the terrorist attack in Moscow as a pretext or as motivation to increase illegal aggression against Ukraine,” Stano told reporters in Brussels.

A shooting occurred this past Friday in the Crocus City Hall concert venue in a northwestern exurb of Moscow, followed by a massive fire. A Sputnik correspondent who witnessed the attack reported that a number of gunmen in camouflage broke into the music hall, shooting people point-blank and throwing incendiary bombs. The Russian Investigative Committee said that at least 137 people were killed as a result of the terrorist attack, which is the deadliest in Russia in nearly 20 years.

Eleven people were detained in connection with the attack, including four believed to be direct perpetrators, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said. The four main suspects in the case were detained in the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Belarus and Ukraine, the FSB added. They were charged with terrorism and ordered to be held in pretrial custody for two months, Moscow’s Basmanny District Court said. All four are from Tajikistan and could face a lifetime in prison.

A few weeks before the terrorist attack, the website of the Ukrainian embassy in Tajikistan published a statement inviting foreigners to join the so-called “International Legion” fighting for Kiev.

UNI