Tragedy has struck Southern Russia when gunmen opened fire on police posts, churches and a synagogue, killing nineteen (19) people including police officers and civilians in the county’s North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan.
Reports also said that six gunmen were also killed and at least sixteen people have been taken to hospitals with injuries.
The attacks in Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in southern Russia which neighbours Chechnya, was reportedly coordinated to target the cities of Derbent and Makhachkala on the Orthodox festival of Pentecost.
An Orthodox priest later identified by the head of the Republic of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, as Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had served in Derbent for more than 40 years, was among those killed.
Authorities in the region have declared a three-day mourning period.
Dagestan has in the past been the scene of Islamist attacks.
In an apparent quest to identify the attackers, Russian media widely reported that among the gunmen were two sons of the head of the Sergokalinsky district, near Makhachkala, Magomed Omarov, Osman and Adil. Mr Omarov was detained by police.
However, in a video posted on Telegram, the republic’s head, Sergei Melikov, said Ukraine had been involved in the attack and that Dagestan was now directly involved in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“We understand who is behind the organisation of the terrorist attacks and what goal they pursued,” he said.
The head of the Russian State Duma’s international affairs committee, Leonid Slutsky, made similar claims, saying that the Dagestan attacks and a missile strike which killed four in Russia-occupied Sevastopol on Sunday “could not be a coincidence”.
“These tragic events, I am sure, were orchestrated from abroad and are aimed at sowing panic and dividing the Russian people,” Mr Slutsky said.
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