Top Russian security official Nikolai Patrushev said on Wednesday that "Ukrainian special services" were behind last month's deadly concert shooting near Moscow and that Ukraine was under the control of the United States, state media reported.

"They are trying to impose on us that the terrorist act was committed not by the Kyiv regime, but by supporters of radical Islamic ideology, possibly members of the Afghan branch of ISIS," Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council, said in Astana at the 19th annual meeting of secretaries of the security councils of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Tajikistan's capital, Dushanbe, is recruiting mercenaries to participate in hostilities against Russia, Patrushev said.

Ukraine has previously denied having anything to do with the attack that killed at least 144 people, and the United States has said Islamic State militants bore sole responsibility.

(With input from Reuters)