- Russia demands that Ukraine arrest its own security chief and extradite him to Moscow.
- The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Vasyl Malyuk of involvement in terrorist acts.
- Malyuk said in July 2023 that his agency destroyed a bridge in Crimea in October 2022.
The Russian Foreign Ministry demanded Sunday evening that Ukraine arrest the head of its own security services and extradite him to Russia.
The ministry issued a statement accusing Vasyl Malyuk, the head of Ukraine’s security services, of being responsible for the bridge explosion in Crimea that Russia says killed five people in October 2022.
The statement called the explosion a “barbaric bombing”, mentioning them alongside the devastating Moscow concert hall attack in March 2022, which killed at least 140 people.
Russia accused kyiv of facilitating the concert hall attack, with leader Vladimir Putin saying Ukrainian authorities had allowed the gunmen to cross its borders. No evidence was presented to support this accusation and the terrorist group ISIS-K claimed responsibility for the killings.
As for the bridge explosion in Crimea, Malyuk publicly stated in July 2023 that his agency was behind the attack.
“This is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on October 8 last year,” he said on Ukrainian television, according to the Associated Press.
Before this admission, Ukraine was already widely considered responsible for the bridge’s destruction.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the bridge attack a terrorist act and said it had demanded Kiev “immediately arrest and extradite everyone involved.”
Moscow and kyiv have been engaged in open war since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.
Ukraine’s security services told local media that Russian claims about kyiv-sanctioned terrorism were “particularly cynical on the anniversary of the liberation of the city of Bucha and the atrocities committed by Russians there “.
“Any word from the Russian Foreign Ministry is therefore worthless,” he said in a statement published by Ukrainska Pravda.
The security services added that Putin himself was the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, following accusations that his forces committed war crimes against children in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Security Service’s press team did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside of normal business hours by Business Insider.
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