Russia demands that Ukraine arrest its security chief and send him to Moscow

The Russian Foreign Ministry asked Ukraine on Sunday evening to arrest the head of the security service in Kiev and extradite him to Moscow, reports Business Insider.

The ministry headed by Sergei Lavrov has issued a press release blaming Vasyl Maliuk, the director of the Security Service (SBU) of Ukraine, for the explosion that took place on the Kerch Bridge in October 2022 and as a result of which Russia says that 5 people they lost their lives.

The communique issued by the Russian MFA called the explosion one of the “barbaric bomb attacks” on Russian territory, mentioning among them the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall that took place in Moscow on March 22 and following which at least 140 people lost their lives.

The new statement issued by the ministry led by Lavrov appears to be part of the concerted action of the Russian authorities to blame the terrorist attack on Ukraine and the West, given that Maliuk claimed the attack against the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea with mainland Russia, since July 2023.

“The destruction of the Crimean bridge on October 8 last year was one of our actions. “There were many different operations, special operations. We will be able to talk about some of them publicly and loudly after the victory, about others we will not talk at all,” Maliuk said on July 26, 2023.

He made the comments during a televised ceremony to unveil a commemorative stamp dedicated to the operations of Ukrainian special forces during the war launched by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022.

Ukraine reminds the Russian MFA of the Bucea atrocities

Russia’s foreign ministry has now called the attack a “terrorist act” and called on Kiev to “immediately arrest and extradite every person involved”.

The SBU described Russia’s claim as “particularly cynical in commemorating the liberation of the town of Bucea and the discovery of atrocities committed by the Russians there”.

“So any words of the Russian foreign ministry are worthless,” the Kiev service emphasized in its own press release.

He also recalled that Russian President Vladimir Putin is subject to an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court last March on charges of deporting Ukrainian children to Russia from the occupied territories, a war crime under international law.

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