Balarusian President Alexander Lukashenko appears to cast a doubt on Russia's claims that Ukraine was involved in the brutal attack at the Moscow concert hall last week.
lSlS claimed responsibility for the massacre which killed at least 139 people and released graphic footage of the incident, but Russian Presidnet Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested without evidence, that Ukraine had helped orchestrate it.
President Putin on claimed yesterday once again said that a "window" had been prepared for the attackers to escape to Ukraine, which Kyiv has denied.
But Lukashenko, one of Putin's most loyal allies on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Kremlin's claims saying that the attackers initally intended to enter Belarus rather than Ukraine.
" They could not enter Belarus. Their handlers knew it would be a bad idea to try and enter Belarus because Belarus immediately reinforced security measures," Lukashenko said, according to Belarusian news agency Belta.
Lukashenko said he received reports from Russian authorities "minutes" after the attack begun and put Belarusian units on combat alert, settting up checkpoints on roads to prevent the attackers entering the country.
" That's why there was no chance they could enter Belarus. They realised it. So they took a turn and headed to the Ukraine-Russian border," the president added.
The attackers stormed the Crocus City Hall in a Moscow suburb on Friday, shooting civilians at point blank before setting the building on fire, causing the roof to collapse while concert goers were still inside.
Four suspects, who are from the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan but worked in Russia on temporary or expired visas were detained later Friday night in Russian ??Bryansk region, near the border with Ukraine and Belarus.
ln his first national address after the attack, President Putin said on Saturday alleged that the men " tried to hide and move towards Ukraine, where according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side of the border."
Putin on Monday conceded the attack had been carried out by "radical lslamists" but tried to pin ultimate responsibility on Ukraine.
Other Kremlin officials have also doubled down on the claims with Alexander Bortnikov, director of Russia's Federal Service Bureau (FSB), alleged on Tuesday that Ukraine was involved in the " training of the militants in the Middle East."
Ukraine has however come out and deined all the allegations against it vehemently and called the Kremlin's accusations as absurb.
Others have speculated why the attackers tried to flee through a heavily militarised section of the border, with a large Russian troop presence.
The Saturday attack on Russia by the Tajik militants has been the latest and most devastating event in the history of the country in almost a decade and the victims are yet to be senteced to prison for life imprisonment.
