Volgograd terrorist attacks killed 32 people – Emergency Situations Ministry

The death toll from the two terrorist attacks in Volgograd has reached 32 people, Russian Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Stepanov told reporters. The Investigative Committee has announced it established a link between the explosions at the Volgograd train station and on the trolleybus, according to Voice of Russia.

 “We currently have information that the two explosions have hurt 104 people, of which 32 were killed,” he said.

Stepanov said the process of the victims’ identification has not been completed yet.

“Unfortunately, this process may take more than one day. Some victims are expected to be identified with relatives’ help. There are plans to use genetic tests, too,” he said.

The terrorists wanted to sow panic and fear, making use of the impossibility to ensure the complete security of transportation systems, Lev Korolkov, veteran of the Vympel special task unit, told the Voice of Russia.

“It is impossible to take each and every transportation vehicle or each and every crowded place under guard. Then, all public transport would have to be halted, all shopping centers closed and all railway stations shut. It’s a process aimed at destabilizing the general situation. Such high-profile terrorist attacks inflicting a large number of casualties mean that some forces are attempting to rock the boat. Those forces could be those seeking territorial secession or maximum control over the North Caucasus to create fertile ground for a future caliphate. We have seen similar things in the Middle East and North Africa over recently,” the expert said.

Volgograd attacks are attempt to open internal front, spread chaos – Foreign Ministry

Cynically planned on the eve of New Year celebrations, this strike is another attempt by terrorists to open an internal front, spread panic and chaos, cause inter-religious hatred and conflict in Russian society, says Russian Foreign Ministry.

The terrorist attacks in Volgograd are an attempt to trigger inter-confessional strife in the Russian society. This came in a report of the Russian Foreign Ministry’.

“A strike that was that was cynically planned on the New Year’s eve is another terrorist to attempt to open an internal ‘front’, to cause panic and chaos, and to trigger inter-confessional strife and conflicts in the Russian society. We’ll continue our struggle with the shrewd enemy who knows no borders and can be stopped only by common efforts.”

Criminal attacks in Volgograd, as well as the attacks of terrorists in in the US, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria, and other countries, have much in common, and their inspirers have much in common too, the document stresses.

Terrorism is always a crime, and terrorists must be punishable by law. And what is needed today is a unanimous denunciation of terrorism and, of course, international solidarity to counter terrorism and the ideology of violence and extremism, which is a feeding ground for terrorism, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

R.S