Russian FSB Says NATO Aids Transfer of Terrorists to Ukraine

Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Alexander Bortnikov said that NATO countries are facilitating the transfer of terrorists from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan to Ukraine, Sputnik reported.

"We are recording the ongoing transfer of mercenaries and fighters of international terrorist organizations from the Middle East, North Africa, and Afghanistan to Ukraine in big groups with the assistance of NATO countries," Bortnikov stated.

He made these remarks at a meeting of the Council of Heads of Security Agencies and Special Services of the CIS member states in Bishkek.

Bortnikov added that some of these fighters are being used for terrorist activities in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Russia has for the first time said that the Daesh terrorist group coordinated the assault on a Moscow concert hall in March, marking the deadliest terror attack in the country in two decades.

Several gunmen stormed the large concert hall, opening fire with automatic weapons and killing over 140 people.

"The investigation is ongoing, but it is already safe to say that Ukrainian military intelligence is directly involved in this attack," Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), stated on Friday.

Bortnikov noted that NATO forces and Ukrainian military intelligence had utilized Daesh militants to combat Russian troops and target Russian interests.

On Thursday, the FSB announced the arrest of three additional suspects linked to the concert hall attack.

"Two of those detained transferred money for the purchase of firearms and vehicles used in the terror attack, and a third was directly involved in recruiting accomplices and financing its perpetrators," the FSB said in a statement quoted by Interfax news agency.

Russian state media aired footage of FSB agents making the arrests, revealing that two of those detained were foreign citizens and one was Russian.

To date, Russian security forces have arrested over a dozen individuals connected to the attack, including the four gunmen, all of whom were citizens of Tajikistan.

Daesh has repeatedly claimed responsibility for the attack, but the Russian government maintains it was "ordered" by either Kiev or the West.

Russian President Vladimir Putin stated on Thursday that the ideology of extremist groups like Daesh contradicts the "bloody, horrific terror attack in Moscow."

Putin added that those behind the Moscow attack aimed "to inflict damage on our unity."