Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev (L) and Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, two of the four suspects in the Crocus City concert hall attack, appear in a Moscow court, March 24, 2024

Sunday’s Coverage: Zelenskiy — “Low-Life” Putin Lies About Moscow Attack

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1619 GMT:

The US Treasury has sanctioned 13 entities and two individuals involved in Russian financial services and technology.

Those cited are accused of developing or offering services in virtual assets aimed at evading American sanctions Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

UPDATE 1541 GMT:

Footage from this morning’s Russian missile strike on a building with an art academy and gym in Kyiv (see 1159 GMT):

UPDATE 1410 GMT:

Russian investigators have started the first “extremism” case against members of the LGBT community, following November’s decision by the Supreme Court to outlaw the “international LGBT movement”.

A court in Orenburg in southwest Russia remanded two employees of Pose, a local gay bar, to pre-trial detention. The court said “individuals with non-traditional sexual orientation”, along with others who “also support the views and activities of the banned international LGBT movement” were responsible for the club’s operations.

Local news outlet Ural56 said the detainees are the club’s art director, Alexander Klimov, and its administrator, Diana Kamilyanova.

UPDATE 1356 GMT:

France’s President Emmanuel Macron has said that the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for Friday’s mass killing in a concert hall near Moscow, recently made “several attempts” at attacks on French soil.

Macron said French intelligence had information that “an entity of IS…planned the attack and carried it out” on the Crocus City concert hall. He added that it would be “cynical and counterproductive for Russia itself and the security of its citizens to use this context to try and turn it against Ukraine”.

UPDATE 1350 GMT:

The death toll ha risen to six from Russia’s missile attack on Kryvyi Rih in south-central Ukraine on Marh 12.

A 59-year-old man died in hospital of his injuries.

Seven people were wounded, three seriously, by the latest Russian shelling on the city.

UPDATE 1159 GMT:

A Russian missile strike on Kyiv has damaged a three-story “non-residential building”.

The side of the building, with art academy’s gym and exhibition hall, was reduced to rubble.

Ten people, including a teenage girl, were injured. At least two were hospitalized.

The missiles were launched from Russian-occupied Crimea at about 10.30 a.m., said Ukraine Air Force commander Lt Gen. Mykola Oleschuk.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba commented:

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy added, “We reiterate that Ukraine requires more air defense systems, which provide safety for our cities and save lives. All of us who respect and protect life must put an end to this terror.”

UPDATE 1146 GMT:

Another landing ship of the Russian Navy was “critically damaged” in a missile strike on Sunday, says Ukraine’s military intelligence agency.

The military said yesterday that the attack on Russian-occupied Crimea had hit two large landing ships, a communications center, and infrastructure of Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet.

It said today that the Yamal, the fourth large landing ship sunk or damaged by Ukraine, suffered a “hole in the upper deck that caused it to roll to the starboard side”.

UPDATE 0710 GMT:

Eleven people have been injured, with two hospitalized, in the Mykolaiv region in southern Ukraine by fragments of a downed Russian drone.

The Iran-made Shahed drone damaged private houses and set afire a residential building and two cars.

UPDATE 0601 GMT:

In a video message on Sunday, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called out “760 days of Russia’s full-scale war” with”ruins instead of cities and villages; death and pain, not life; terror instead of international law”.

Ukrainians are bravely defending their homeland and will continue to do so. I am grateful to everyone around the world who supports our country and people. I am grateful to everyone who calls a spade a spade and refuses to let Russia deceive the world through propaganda and blackmail.

Russia must lose this war. This is the only way to reliably protect human lives.

Air defense, long-range weapons, artillery, sanctions, the confiscation of Russian assets, and support for our country all bring the restoration of a fair peace and normal life closer.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Islamic State has released more videos confirming that it carried out Friday’s attack near Moscow killing at least 137 people.

Sunday’s footage dismantled Vladimir Putin’s claim, trying to justify his 25-month invasion, that Kyiv was behind the mass shooting and explosions in the Crocus City concert hall. The four gunmen filmed themselves as they pursued victims in the lobby and fired from point-blank range. At one point, one of them tells another to “kill them and have no mercy”.

Four suspects, identified as nationals of Tajikistan, appeared in court in Moscow on Sunday.

The men were named as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev, Shamsidin Fariduni, and Muhammadsobir Fayzov. They were charged with a “terror attack committed by a group of individuals resulting in a person’s death”.

One of the defendants was led blindfolded into the courtroom. A black eye was visible when the blindfold was removed. Another was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair.

All four pleaded guilty and were remanded in custody for two months.

Despite the Islamic State videos, Russian officials continued their deceptive claims. Faced with US intelligence reports of the Islamic State’s responsibility, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova snapped:

I wish they could have solved the assassination of their own President Kennedy so quickly. But no, for more than 60 years they have not been able to find out who killed him after all. Or maybe that was ISIS too?