It took Anna and her wheelchair-bound teenage son only about 17 minutes to escape from the second floor of the Moscow concert hall after hearing the first automatic gunshots and take a taxi home.
Just a few hours later, she had no doubt about who was to blame for one of the deadliest terror attacks in Russia’s modern history.
“The terrorists were fleeing towards Ukraine, so it seems to have been Ukraine,” Anna, a 41-year-old insurance broker, told the Financial Times. “They needed something to divert attention from the front lines. And the deaths of Russians, even those not directly involved in the war, including children, have always been a cause of great joy for Ukrainian patriots.”