Police posts and churches, as well as an Orthodox church in Russia’s North Caucasus republic of Dagestan have killed 19 people as well as five gunmen dead.

At least 16 victims were hospitalized for injuries sustained in the attack on Sunday evening.

The three days of mourning has been announced in Dagestan which is a largely Muslim republic located in the south of Russia which is a neighbor of Chechnya.

The alleged planned attacks hit the towns of Derbent and Makhachkala during the Orthodox celebration of Pentecost including an Orthodox priest among the victims.

Later, he was identified by the president of the Republic of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov by the name of Father Nikolai Kotelnikov, who had worked in Derbent for more than 40 years.

In a string of incidents in the evening of Sunday, armed men struck the synagogue and a church in Derbent which is home to an old Jewish community.

In the largest city of Dagestan, Makhachkala, a church and a post of police near a synagogue were targeted.

Photos posted on social media showed men in dark attire shooting at police vehicles in Makhachkala prior to an ambulance and emergency service vehicles arrives at the site.

Dagestan was in past a site for Islamist attacks.

While the gunmen haven’t been identified officially, Russian media widely reported that they were among the gunmen two sons of the head of Sergokala district Magomed Omarov. Both were arrested by police.

However, in a clip uploaded to Telegram the post suggested that Ukraine was involved in the attack, and claimed that Dagestan is now engaged in Russia’s conflict in Ukraine.

“The war is coming to our homes,” Mr. Melikov stated.

“We understand who is behind the organisation of the terrorist attacks and what goal they pursued,” he added.

On Monday, Melikov declared that the authorities were still searching for the members of “sleeper cells” who had created the terrorist attacks, which included the assistance of foreigners.

The chair of Russian State Duma’s foreign issues committee Leonid Slutsky has put forth similar assertions, stating it was possible that Dagestan attacks as well as a missile strike that killed four people in the Russian-occupied Sevastopol in Sevastopol on Saturday “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 stated.

However, a prominent Russian nationalist in the occupied Ukraine, Dmitry Rogozin, warned that if any attack is blamed on “the machinations of Ukraine and Nato, this pink mist will lead us to big problems”.

A terrorist incident at the Crocus City Hall facility close to Moscow in March, which resulted in 147 people dead was blamed by Russian officials on Ukraine as well as the West, despite the fact that they claimed that the Islamic State group claimed it.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia’s President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences for those that lost family members during the attack in Crimea as well as Dagestan.

Russian media outlets announced on Monday that the anti-terror operation which was initiated following the attacks has been put to rest.

From 2007 to 2017 an islamist group, The Caucasus Emirate, and later the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus launched attacks in Dagestan as well as the neighboring Russian republics Chechnya, Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria.

In the aftermath of the Crocus City Hall massacre in Moscow the Russian president Vladimir Putin had insisted that “Russia cannot be the target of terrorist attacks by Islamic fundamentalists” because it “demonstrates a unique example of interfaith harmony and inter-religious and inter-ethnic unity”.

But, just three months ago the Russian security agency known as the FSB announced that it has foiled attempts by an IS plot to strike the Moscow synagogue.