Russia creating a "smokescreen of propaganda" following attack, UK says

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt gives an interview in London in November 2023. Isabel Infantes/Reuters

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt told British broadcaster Sky News that the UK government has “very little confidence in anything the Russian government says” with regards to the Kremlin’s claim that Ukraine was somehow involved in the Moscow Crocus City attack on Friday.

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an address that the four attackers had tried to escape to Ukraine “where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border."

“We know that they are creating a smokescreen of propaganda to defend an utterly evil invasion of Ukraine. But, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a tragedy when innocent people lose their lives, when you have horrible bombings,” he said.

Hunt went on to say he takes “what the Russian government says with an enormous pinch of salt… after what we have seen from them over the last few years.”