War in Ukraine, day 768. Russia officially accuses Ukraine of involvement in the Crocus Hall terrorist attack

The most important events of the last 24 hours:

• Moscow is asking Kiev to extradite its own intelligence chief
• Elon Musk: Ukraine risks losing Odessa and access to the Black Sea
• Russia is trying to strengthen the defenses of its Novorossiisk port
• Russia claims to have struck Ukraine’s energy infrastructure and gas production facilities
• Pope calls for ‘a general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine’
• France will deliver “hundreds” of old but “still functional” armored vehicles to Ukraine
• Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the biannual military recruitment

Update 08:30 Moscow is asking Kiev to extradite its own intelligence chief.

Russia announced on Sunday that it has asked Ukraine to extradite the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and other people who, in its opinion, are involved in “terrorist attacks” on its territory, AFP notes.

Kiev immediately rejected these requests, considered “worthless” and “cynical”.

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced in a statement that it asked the Ukrainian authorities to “immediately arrest and extradite” the head of the SBU, Vasyl Maliuk, and other people, invoking two international conventions against terrorism.

According to Russian diplomacy, Maliuk admitted that he “organized the bombing of the bridge in Crimea in October 2022 and revealed details about the organization of other terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation.”

“The Russian side demands that the Kiev regime immediately cease any support for terrorist activities, extradite those responsible and compensate the victims for the damage caused,” the statement adds.

It is not clear how Russia conveyed these requests, as Kiev cut diplomatic ties with Moscow shortly after invading Ukraine in February 2022.

The SBU called them “worthless” and “cynical”. “Declarations about terrorism are particularly cynical coming from a terrorist country,” he emphasized.

Earlier in the week, Maliuk, 41, who has led the SBU for more than a year, scoffed at an arrest warrant issued against him by a Russian court as part of an investigation into a deadly 2022 explosion on the Crimean bridge linking Russia by this annexed peninsula.

Update 00:00 A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow claims that all traces of the murders of last week’s massacre, in which 143 people died, lead to the regime in Kiev.

The document released by the Russian MFA shows, among other things:

“The bloody terrorist attack that took place on March 22 in Krasnogorsk, which shocked the whole world, is far from the first terrorist attack against our country in recent times.

“Investigations by the relevant Russian authorities indicate that the traces of all these crimes lead to Ukraine.”

The communique recalls the terrorist acts that led to the murder of Daria Dughina and Vladlen Tatarski, to the wounding of 42 people in the attack on him in the cafe in Saint Petersburg, to the serious wounding of the writer Evgheni Prilepin and the death of his driver or the death of five people in the attack on the Crimean bridge.

According to the document, Moscow sent Kiev a request for the arrest and extradition of all the people involved in these terrorist attacks.

Russia is also calling for the arrest of the head of Ukraine’s security service (SBU), Vasili Maliuc, who, in a statement, “cynically admitted on March 25 that Ukraine organized the October 2022 Crimean bridge bombing and disclosed details regarding the organization of other terrorist attacks in the Russian Federation”.

In Sunday’s statement, the Russian MFA threatens Ukraine:

“The fight against international terrorism is the responsibility of each state. The Russian side demands that the Kiev regime immediately cease any support for terrorist activities, hand over the perpetrators, and compensate the victims for the damages they suffered.”

In conclusion: “Ukraine’s violation of its obligations under anti-terrorist conventions will attract its full international legal responsibility.”

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