MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ambassadors from several foreign countries took part in a ceremony on Saturday in memory of the victims of this month’s attack on a concert hall near Moscow that left dozens dead, the ministry’s protocol department said Russian Foreign Office.
Gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons on concertgoers on March 22 in Russia’s worst attack in two decades, which left at least 144 people dead.
“On March 30, 2024, a ceremony was held to lay flowers at the spontaneous memorial near the Crocus municipality complex. The heads and staff of more than 130 diplomatic missions (over 250 people) took part in the commemorative action,” reads the statement from Ministry. The Department of Protocol said this on its website.
Among the participants were ambassadors from the United States, the European Union, Africa, Latin America, as well as representatives of the UN and other organizations, the Kommersant newspaper reported.
They and other visitors laid flowers at the memorial and released white balloons into the sky.
“We are deeply grateful to the distinguished representatives of the diplomatic corps for their solidarity with the Russian people in such a difficult time,” the Protocol Department said.
The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and US officials say they have intelligence showing it was carried out by the network’s Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K).
Russian investigators said Thursday they had found evidence that the concert hall gunmen were linked to “Ukrainian nationalists,” a claim rejected by the United States as unfounded propaganda.
Russia said from the start that it believed Ukraine was linked to the attack, although Kiev denied this.