Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee’s (NAC) representative Vadim Druzhinin claimed that 27 attacks on transport, energy and defence facilities were prevented in the country in 2024, speaking at the agency's meeting in Moscow on Tuesday.

"As a result of timely actions, 27 terrorist attacks on such facilities have been prevented. Attempts by Ukrainian sabotage and reconnaissance formations to infiltrate Russian territory were thwarted," Druzhinin alleged.

He added that the NAC had taken additional measures to strengthen the security of sites from potential terrorist attacks and to improve the training of specialists who carry out anti-terrorist and anti-sabotage activities.

Ukraine rarely comments on attacks inside Russia. It has previously acknowledged that militant groups were conducting operations, but said they were working independently of Kiev.

Meanwhile Russian Federal Security Service Head Aleksandr Bortnikov claimed that Ukrainians and their 'Western patrons' were behind the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall.

"Ukrainian neo-Nazis and their Western patrons are organising, or are prepared to actively support, the commission of the most barbaric crimes on our territory by members of the international terrorist underground. This is demonstrated by the recent tragic events in Krasnogorsk (Crocus City Hall attack) with numerous victims among the civilian population," he alleged.

On the same day, the Russian Investigative Committee announced that it had opened a criminal case into alleged 'terrorism financing' by Western countries in Russia.

"It has been established that money received through commercial organisations, in particular the oil and gas company Burisma Holdings, which operates in Ukraine, has been used in recent years to carry out terrorist acts in the Russian Federation as well as abroad in order to eliminate prominent political and public figures and cause economic damage," alleged Svetlana Petrenko, the official representative of the Russian IC.

Burisma was the company that Hunter Biden, son of the US president, once worked for. In February, an ex-FBI informant was charged with making false statements about an alleged bribery scandal involving Hunter and Joe Biden, and Burisma. The Bidens have strongly denied any wrongdoing.

Late on March 22, unidentified individuals dressed in military fatigues opened fire in the Crocus City Hall, a 6,000-seat multipurpose concert hall where a Russian rock band was set to perform. A massive fire broke out in the building shortly after.

Over 140 people were reported to have been killed while several suspects were captured and remanded in custody until May 22 on charges of 'terrorism'.

President Vladimir Putin said that suspects had been caught trying to cross to Ukraine. While he added that 'radical Islamists' were responsible, he also hit out at the US for 'trying through various channels to convince its satellites and other countries of the world that, according to their intelligence, there is allegedly no trace of Kiev in the Moscow terrorist attack'.

"We want to know who ordered it," he added, while the Russian Investigative Committee subsequently said it had evidence of links to 'Ukrainian nationalists'.

Following the attack, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said it 'categorically denies' accusations of Kiev’s involvement. US national security spokesperson John Kirby called the Russian Investigative Committee's allegations 'nonsense and propaganda'. Earlier, the United States claimed that it was a 'terrorist attack that was conducted by ISIS' and that there was 'absolutely no evidence that the government of Ukraine had anything to do with this attack'.