While the entire world is mourning the March 22 terrorist massacre at Crocus City Hall in the outskirts of Moscow city, a bar named ‘Ofenziva’ (Offensive) in Kyiv, Ukraine has introduced a new item to its controversial menu mocking the massacre. According to the latest report, the death toll stands at 144, though search for victims is still ongoing and the death toll is expected to grow even further.
The Ukrainian bar advertises itself as “the first meme-military art bar” in Kyiv in an allusion to online meme warfare. It serves as a platform for various performers, most of whom exhibit ultra-nationalist views.
Shortly after the attack, Ofenziva rolled out a new set dubbed ‘Crocus City’, composed of several fried snacks. The menu item on the bar’s website is accompanied by a photo of the concert hall on fire in the aftermath of the attack.
The venue offers several other themed items on its menu, invariably in questionable taste, including a series of sandwiches with various fillings, dubbed ‘Navalny’ – in the name of Russian blogger Alexei Navalny. It was introduced shortly after Navalny died in February.
A pork steak dubbed ‘Darya Dugina’ is also available, rolled out by the bar to mock the death of the Russian political activist and daughter of philosopher Aleksandr Dugin. She was killed in a car bombing back in August 2022; the assassination has been attributed to Ukrainian intelligence services.
According to Russian RT, Ofenziva is not the first in Ukraine to feature tasteless themes in its menu; various establishments mocked the victims of the May 2014 massacre in Odessa, where nationalists killed and burned alive dozens of activists opposing the so-called “Revolution of Dignity”. Pictures of ‘Russian baby’-shaped cakes at Ukrainian restaurants became an internet sensation that year.
It is already reported in the media that on March 22, 2024, Friday, at least five gunmen in combat gear opened fire and detonated explosives at Crocus City Hall in Moscow city’s western suburbs.
Preliminary data shows that the terrorists used automatic firearms, which are now studied by investigators. Ballistic, fingerprint and genetic forensic investigations of these firearms are underway.
Crocus Hall is one of the most famous venues in Moscow with a capacity of 7,500 people.
Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev wrote on the Telegram app that if those responsible for the attack turn out to be Ukrainian, “all of them must be found and ruthlessly destroyed as terrorists”.
Later in another statement on March 25, Dmitry Medvedev said, the perpetrators and masterminds of March 22 deadly terrorist attack at a Moscow concert venue must be killed without mercy.
“Everyone asks me. What to do? … Should they be killed?” wrote Medvedev, currently deputy chair of the National Security Council, in a Telegram post.
“It should and will be done”, he stressed, adding: “It is much more important to kill everyone involved. Everyone. Who paid, who sympathized, who helped. Kill them all”.
The former Russian president vowed to “avenge each and every” victim of the Crocus City Hall attack, regardless of country of origin and status, insisting this “is now our legal and main goal”.
Medvedev’s comments come amid growing calls among the country’s lawmakers to restore the death penalty, which has effectively been banned in Russia since 1996. While the Russian criminal code technically has a provision for capital punishment, courts are de facto banned from handing down such a sentence.
Meanwhile, Washington’s suspicious behavior following the latest case of terrorist attack at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall may be a huge scoop for investigative journalists as well as counterterrorism organizations. Let us first chronologically check certain facts:
Days before the terrorist attack, the US Embassy & Consulate in Russia in a Security Alert said: “The Embassy is monitoring reports that extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow, to include concerts, and US citizens should be advised to avoid large gatherings over the next 48 hours”. They said, “extremists have imminent plans to target large gatherings in Moscow to include concerts”.
And a terrorist attack took place on March 22 at Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow. Any guesses? This is neither a conspiracy theory nor disinformation. My observation is based on fact and evidence. Moreover, it is also essential to take one important point into consideration. A large number of people who were killed during the terrorist attack fell victims of gas released from explosives. Investigators said, the causes of death are gunshot wounds and poisoning by combustion products.
While just within hours of the gruesome terrorist attack, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said that Kyiv is not involved in the attack at Crocus City Hall, almost simultaneously US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters, US sees no evidence of Ukrainian involvement in the terror attack.
John Kirby said, “At this time there are no indications that Ukraine or Ukrainians were involved in Friday’s attack on Crocus City Hall”.
It is a matter of great mystery as to how Washington came to the conclusion stating Ukraine is not involved in the terror attack when investigation into the case is yet to conclude.
This is the second statement from the United States where is has “no doubt” about Ukraine’s involvement behind the terrorist attack in Moscow and secondly ISIS franchise Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP)’s claiming responsibility. Can someone ask – why Washington is in such a hurry of somehow diverting responsibility of the terrorist attack on third parties such as ISKP when it already is reported in the media that after carrying out the attack on March 22, 2024 night, “the perpetrators tried to escape by car, fleeing towards the Russian-Ukrainian border”, the FSB said on Saturday. “The criminals intended to cross the Russia-Ukraine border and had relevant contacts on the Ukrainian side”, it added.
According to Sergei Goncharov, a veteran of the elite Russian Alpha anti-terrorism unit, he has no doubt in his mind that Russian investigators will ultimately find the masterminds behind Friday’s deadly attack on Crocus City Hall, and has an inkling about the man most directly responsible.
“There is only one way to qualify what happened – this was a terrorist act, meaning innocent people were harmed. They were simply executed,” Sergei Goncharov, president of the International Association of Alpha Veterans – an elite Russian anti-terrorism special ops force subordinated to the FSB, reports Sputnik.
“What happened today was a terrible tragedy, and I think, a link in a chain. Therefore, I think Ukraine will reject responsibility. Because nobody publicly approves of terrorist attacks. But in any case, at the moment I don’t see any factor that could take us away from the Ukrainian connection. It could have been some other organization, but I have no doubt that it was provoked by the Nazis of Ukraine”, the retired Alpha captain said.
Specifically, Goncharov believes Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov – who has threatened repeatedly to target Russian civilians, is most directly responsible for Friday’s carnage.
The terror threat emanating from the Kiev regime is real, Goncharov emphasized, pointing to almost daily reports by the FSB of operations to capture terrorists, arsonists, would-be suicide bombers, etc.
Commenting on the reports that two of the perpetrators had barricaded themselves and had engaged in a firefight with Russian special services, Goncharov expressed hope “that one of them will be taken alive, and we will receive information” regarding who exactly organized the attack at Crocus.
Media reports further said, “all four terrorists” were arrested in Russia’s Bryansk Region – not far from the border with Ukraine, within several hours as a result of well-coordinated actions by the security services and the police.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 23 addressed the nation about the Crocus City Hall shooting, denouncing it as a “bloody and barbaric” terrorist attack and vowing to punish all involved.
In his video address, the Russian president declared a national day of mourning on Sunday, March 24, to commemorate the victims of the attack.
Vowing to punish all conspirators behind Friday night’s attack, Putin noted that, so far, 11 suspects, including four perpetrators who directly participated in the shooting spree, have been detained. The attackers were caught fleeing “towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window to cross the border was prepared on the Ukrainian side”, he added.
“All perpetrators, organizers and masterminds behind this crime will get just and inevitable punishment. Whoever they are, whoever guides them. I repeat: we will identify and punish everyone who stands behind the terrorists, who prepared this atrocity, this attack on Russia, on our people”, President Putin stated.
Meanwhile, Margarita Simonyan, the editor-in-chief of RT and Sputnik’s parent media group Rossiya Segodnya in a statement said, Ukraine and the West have resorted to false flag operations to persuade everyone that ISIS was behind the terror attack in the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow.
The head of the media group stressed that the names and faces of the perpetrators are already known to authorities and that the terrorists gave everything away during interrogation.
“It immediately became obvious why US media were claiming in unison that it was ISIS”, she said.
Simonyan explained that the perpetrators were chosen to carry out the attack in a manner that would allow the West to persuade the international community that ISIS was behind the attack.
“Basic sleight of hand. The level of a railway thimble-rigger,” she added.” It has nothing to do with ISIS. It’s Ukrainians”.
She added that the enthusiasm displayed by Western media when they tried to persuade everyone that ISIS was responsible even before arrests were made gave them away completely.
“This is not ISIS. This is a well-coordinated team of several other, also widely known, abbreviations”, Simonyan concluded.
Undoubtedly the conspiracy theory spread by Washington putting blame on Islamic State is suspicious enough. Moreover, krainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak’s statement saying, Kyiv is not involved in the attack at Crocus City Hall and the recently case of Ukrainian bar ‘Ofenziva’ mocking the victims of the deadly massacre evidently prove – Kyiv is celebrating this terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said, the international community must unite to find the masterminds of the terrorist attack late last week on a crowded concert at Crocus City Hall in suburban Moscow.
“It is very important for the entire world community to unite today to find the masterminds and hold them accountable to the fullest extent”, Moskalkova said at a makeshift memorial near the site of the attack.
The ombudswoman also expressed condolences to the families and loved ones of the deceased, and wished a speedy recovery to those who were affected by this “monstrous, bloody terrorist attack”. “Of course, the heart is filled not only with pain but also with hatred towards those who were able to commit this monstrous act”, Moskalkova said.
