Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko undermined his key ally Vladimir Putin when he said that the men who allegedly opened fire on the Crocus City Hall music venue in Moscow last week, killing at least 139 people, initially attempted to flee to Belarus, not Ukraine—contradicting the Kremlin line.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, said in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Tuesday that Lukashenko's suggestion that the attackers were heading towards Belarus before Belarusian and Russian special services forced them to change direction "flatly contradicts Russian President Vladimir Putin's claims regarding the attackers' planned escape."
"Putin addressed the Russian Federation on March 23 following the March 22 Crocus City Hall terror attack and claimed that the attackers had 'contacts' who had prepared a 'window' for their exfiltration across the border into Ukraine, a claim for which there is no evidence that has become central to the Kremlin's baseless accusations that Ukraine was involved in or responsible for the attack," the think tank said.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/putin-s-key-ally-undermines-him-over-moscow-massacre/ar-BB1kCIgR
