According to the Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, not ISIS, but Kyiv was behind the terror attack in the concert venue Crocus City Hall. Also, the head of the Russian FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, said the Ukrainian special services were involved in the terrorist attack.
Following the news, state-run Telegram channel ZhS Premium falsely reported on March 27, 2024, Austrian journalists claim that traces of terrorism in Crocus have led to Ukraine.
“The outlet backs the theory that the terrorists who carried out the bloody shooting at Crocus City Hall had curators in Ukraine, and even gives its own arguments. The handwriting is the same! Analyzing the terrorist attack in Crocus, the Heute's authors outline that recently, Austrian police detained similar militants armed with Kalashnikovs and explosives — Tajikistan was also mentioned — who had been planning an attack on Vienna's St. Stephen's Cathedral.” the Telegram channel said.
Indeed, the Austrian newspaper Heute published the article “Terrorism suspects arrived in Vienna via Ukraine”.
Though, there is nothing about “Ukrainian curators” in the article. On the contrary, the outlet outlines that “as far as it is known, the Ukrainian state has nothing to do with the terrorist attack”.
The authors of the article only assume that terrorists are linked with like-minded people from the territory of Ukraine. And they recall the detention of two terrorism suspects in Vienna last December, who also came to Austria from Ukraine — a 28-year-old Tajik origin and his wife.
The intelligence services prevented the terrorist attack after they discovered messages with plans for it in a Facebook chat. The investigation traced to the Afghan branch Wilayat Khorasan of the terrorist organization ISIS. The group recruits terrorist fighters in Central Asian states across the former Soviet Union, especially Tajikistan.
The Heute also considers it unlikely that the suspects from Vienna and the criminals from Moscow know each other directly. However, both acted on behalf of the same branch of the Islamic State.
Thus, Austrian journalists highlight the handwriting of the very Islamic State, not Ukraine, in both plots of the Crocus City Hall attack and the prevented one in Vienna.
The Islamic State (ISIS) organization is recognized as a terrorist in the EU, USA, Russia and many other countries worldwide.