Putin's address to Russians in connection with the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall

Russian President Vladimir Putin made an address to citizens in connection with the terrorist attack in the Crocus City Hall. TASS publishes the full text of his speech.

Dear citizens of Russia!

I am addressing you in connection with the bloody, barbaric terrorist act, the victims of which were dozens of peaceful, innocent people - our compatriots, including children, teenagers and women. Doctors are now fighting for the lives of the victims, those who are in serious condition. I am sure they will do everything possible and even impossible to save the lives and health of all the wounded. My special words of gratitude are to the crews of ambulance and air ambulance, special forces, firefighters, rescuers, who did everything to save lives of people, to bring them out from under the fire, from the epicenter of fire and smoke, to avoid even greater losses.

I cannot ignore the help of ordinary citizens, who in the first minutes after the tragedy did not remain indifferent and along with doctors and employees of special services provided first aid, delivered the victims to hospitals.

Necessary assistance will be rendered to all families, whose lives were affected by the terrible disaster, to the wounded and injured. I express my deep and sincere condolences to all those who have lost their relatives and loved ones. The whole country is together with you, all our people are grieving. I declare March 24 a day of national mourning.

Additional anti-terrorist and anti-sabotage measures have been introduced in Moscow and the Moscow Region and in all regions of the country. The main thing now is to prevent those behind this bloody massacre from committing a new crime.

As for the investigation of this crime and the results of the operative-search actions, at present we can say the following. All four direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack, all those who shot and killed people, have been found and detained. They tried to escape and were moving towards Ukraine, where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border. A total of 11 people have been detained. The Russian Federal Security Service and other law enforcement agencies are working to identify and uncover the entire auxiliary base of the terrorists: those who provided them with transportation, plotted ways of getting away from the scene of the crime, prepared caches and hiding places with weapons and ammunition.

I repeat, the investigative and law enforcement agencies will do everything possible to establish all the details of the crime. But it is already obvious that we are faced not just with a carefully cynically planned terrorist attack, but with a prepared and organized mass murder of peaceful, defenseless people. The criminals were cold-bloodedly and purposefully going to kill, shoot our citizens and our children at point-blank range. Like the Nazis, who once carried out massacres in the occupied territories, they planned to organize a show of execution, a bloody act of intimidation.