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Four gunmen are among 11 people arrested following a shooting massacre in a packed Moscow concert hall, according to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.

Videos broadcast on Russian media appear to show the detention and violent interrogation of the suspects.

Kyiv and Lviv under Russian air attack; Russia starts day of mourning – follow latest

In one piece of footage a man was marched out of a forest, his face covered in blood from what appeared to be an ear injury, before struggling to speak in Russian.

Another video showed a man trembling on his knees as he answered in heavily accented Russian to a series of barked questions.

He was initially shown lying on his stomach with his hands bound behind his back, his chin resting on the boot of a figure in camouflage uniform.

Sky News has not been able to independently verify the videos.

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Moscow shooting kills at least 130

Moscow attack latest: Deadly concert attack suspects ‘violently interrogated’; Russia begins nationwide day of mourning

The men were from Tajikistan, according to Russian news reports.

The former Soviet country is in Central Asia, predominantly Muslim, and borders Afghanistan.

Mr Putin has claimed the gunmen attempted to flee to Ukraine in the aftermath of the mass shooting, in which at least 133 people were killed.

The allegation came despite the Islamist terror group Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) claiming responsibility for Friday night’s attack.

“They tried to hide and moved towards Ukraine where, according to preliminary data, a window was prepared for them on the Ukrainian side to cross the state border,” Mr Putin said of the suspects.

But neither he nor the FSB publicly presented proof linking the attack to Ukraine, which it invaded 25 months ago.

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Putin vows to ‘punish’ terrorists

His words were met with derision from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said it was “absolutely predictable” that “Putin and other scum are just trying to blame someone else”.

The thousands of Russians dying on Ukrainian soil would be better used stopping terrorists at home, said Mr Zelenskyy.

“They [Russia] drove hundreds of thousands of their terrorists here, on Ukrainian soil.

“They are fighting against us and they don’t care what happens inside their own country.”

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How did the Moscow attack happen?

Read more
Who are IS-K and why would they target Russia?
Ukraine worried Putin will exploit Moscow bloodshed

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Huge ‘breakdown in intelligence’

IS-K said its four members used automatic rifles, a pistol, knives and firebombs, firing into the crowd and using knives to kill some concertgoers, in a raid that was part of their ongoing war with countries that are fighting Islam.

The group was behind the August 2021 Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 US troops and 170 Afghans during the US withdrawal from the country.

What is IS-K and why would it target Russia?


Alex Rossi - Middle East correspondent

Alex Rossi

International correspondent

@alexrossiSKY

Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K) has taken credit for attacks by other terror networks in the past, but it is almost certainly behind the deadly assault in Russia, though nothing is impossible.

The group has claimed responsibility, and the chatter picked up by Western intelligence services in the days leading up to the atrocity also indicated something was coming.

The number of people killed in Friday’s shooting near Moscow is grim and likely to keep climbing.

Many people presumed Islamic State (IS) had been neutered, but it has been growing in strength in recent years, particularly IS-K.

Click here to read Alex Rossi’s full analysis

The group also claimed responsibility for bombing a memorial procession in Iraq in January, killing 95 people.

Sunday has been declared a day of mourning in Russia, as investigators continue to search the charred wreckage of the theatre for more victims.

Flags have been lowered, entertainment events cancelled, and advertising suspended on TV channels, according to state news outlet RIA Novosti.

Early on Sunday, Russia launched an airstrike on Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram there were explosions in the capital after the region’s military administration said that air defence systems were engaged in repelling the attack.

Eyewitnesses are reported to have heard several blasts and saw several air weapons being shot down.

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

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Climate-vulnerable islands storm out of COP29 negotiation room in row over funding

Representatives of dozens of climate vulnerable islands and African nations have stormed out of high-stakes negotiations over a climate funding goal.

Patience is wearing thin and negotiations have boiled over at the COP29 climate talks in Azerbaijan, which were due to finish yesterday but are now well into overtime.

After two weeks of talks, the more than 190 countries gathered in the capital Baku are still trying to agree a new financial settlement to channel money to poorer countries to both curb and adapt to climate change.

Talks have now run well into overtime at COP29, but a deal now feels much more precarious.

The least developed countries like Mozambique and low-lying island nations like Samoa say their calls for a portion of the fund to be allocated to them have been ignored.

Samoa’s minister of natural resources and environment Toeolesulusulu Cedric Schuster is one of the representatives who walked out.

“We are here to negotiate but we have walked out… at the moment we don’t feel we are being heard in there,” he said on behalf of more than 40 small island and developing states, whose shorelines are being lost to rising sea levels.

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Shortly after he made a veiled threat of leaving COP29 altogether, saying: “We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be INCLUSIVE.

“If this cannot be the case, it becomes very difficult for us to continue our involvement here at COP29.”

Evans Njewa, who chairs a group of more than 40 least developed countries, said the current deal is “unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do.”

The last official draft on Friday pledged $250bn a year annually by 2035.

This is more than double the previous goal of $100bn set 15 years ago, but nowhere near the annual $1.3trn that experts say is needed.

Sky News understands some developed countries like the UK were this morning willing to bump up the goal to $300bn.

Developing countries are angry not just about the finance negotiations, but also on how to make progress on a pledge from last year to “transition away from fossil fuels”.

A group of oil and producing countries, spearheaded by Saudi Arabia, have tried to dilute that language, while the UK and island state are among those that have fought to keep it in.

Mr Schuster said all things being negotiated contain a “deplorable lack of substance”.

He added: “We need to see progress and follow up on the transition away from fossil fuels that we agreed last year. We have been asked to forget all about that at this COP, as though we are not in a critical decade and as though the 1.5C limit is not in peril.”

“We need to be shown the regard which our dire circumstances necessitate.”

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

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At least 11 killed in Israeli strikes on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities say

At least 11 people have been killed and 63 injured in an Israeli strike on central Beirut, Lebanese authorities have said.

Lebanon‘s health ministry said the death toll could rise as emergency workers dug through the rubble looking for survivors. DNA tests are being used to identify the victims, the ministry added.

State-run National News Agency (NNA) said the attack “completely destroyed” an eight-storey residential building in the Basta neighbourhood early on Saturday.

Footage broadcast by Lebanon’s Al Jadeed station also showed at least one destroyed building and several others badly damaged around it.

The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike
Image:
The central Basta neighbourhood in Beirut, where four people were killed in an Israeli airstrike

Map of Lebanon and Israel

The Israeli military did not warn residents to evacuate before the attack – the fourth targeting the centre this week.

At least four bombs were dropped in the attack, security sources told Reuters news agency.

The blasts happened at about 4am (2am UK time).

A seperate drone strike in the southern port cuty of Tyre this morning killed one person and injured another, according to the NNA.

The blasts came after a day of bombardment of Beirut’s southern suburbs and Tyre. The Israeli military had issued evacuation notices prior to those strikes.

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

Israel has killed several Hezbollah leaders in air strikes on the capital’s southern suburbs.

Heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah is ongoing in southern Lebanon, as Israeli forces push deeper into the country since launching a major offensive in September.

Read more:
No 10 indicates Netanyahu would be arrested
‘Dozens’ of Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike

US envoy Amos Hochstein was in the region this week to try to end more than 13 months of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, ignited last October by the war in Gaza.

Mr Hochstein indicated progress had been made after meetings in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday, before going to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Israel Katz.

According to the Lebanese health ministry, Israel has killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon and wounded more than 15,000.

It has displaced about 1.2 million people – a quarter of Lebanon’s population – while Israel says about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed in northern Israel.

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia’s ‘unstoppable’ missile – as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

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Vladimir Putin vows to increase production of Russia's 'unstoppable' missile - as NATO and Ukraine to hold talks

President Vladimir Putin has said Russia will ramp up the production of a new, hypersonic ballistic missile.

In a nationally-televised speech, Mr Putin said the intermediate-range Oreshnik missile was used in an attack on Ukrainian city Dnipro in retaliation for Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

Referring to the Oreshnik, the Russian president said: “No one in the world has such weapons.

“Sooner or later other leading countries will also get them. We are aware that they are under development.”

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Putin’s warning to the West

Russia war latest: Long-awaited US air defences arrive in Ukraine

He added: “We have this system now. And this is important.”

Detailing the missile’s alleged capabilities, Mr Putin claimed it is so powerful that using several fitted with conventional warheads in one attack could be as devastating as a strike with nuclear weapons.

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General Sergei Karakayev, head of Russia’s strategic missile forces, said the Oreshnik could reach targets across Europe and be fitted with either nuclear or conventional warheads – while Mr Putin alleged Western air defence systems will not be able to stop the missiles.

Mr Putin said of the Oreshnik: “There is no countermeasure to such a missile, no means of intercepting it, in the world today. And I will emphasise once again that we will continue testing this newest system. It is necessary to establish serial production.”

Read more from Sky News:
What are storm shadow missiles?
How bionic limps are helping Ukrainian troops

Testing the Oreshnik will happen “in combat, depending on the situation and the character of security threats created for Russia“, the president added, stating there is “a stockpile of such systems ready for use”.

NATO and Ukraine are expected to hold emergency talks on Tuesday.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s parliament cancelled a session as security was tightened following the strike on Dnipro, a central city with a population of around one million. No fatalities were reported.

EU leaders condemn Russia’s ‘heinous attacks’

Numerous EU leaders have addressed Russia’s escalation of the conflict with Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk saying the war is “entering a decisive phase [and] taking on very dramatic dimensions”.

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Russia’s new missile – what does it mean?

Speaking in Kyiv, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky called Moscow’s strike an “escalatory step and an attempt of the Russian dictator to scare the population of Ukraine and to scare the population of Europe”.

At a news conference, Mr Lipavsky gave his full support for delivering the additional air defence systems needed to protect Ukrainian civilians from the “heinous attacks”.

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