The Russian Security Services (FSB, heir to the KGB) arrested eight people on Wednesday, suspected of organizing and executing the bomb attack that last Saturday partially broke the Kerch bridge, better known as the Crimean bridge.
The alleged implicated are five Russian citizens and three others from Armenia and Ukraine. "So far, within the framework of the investigation, five citizens of Russia and three of Ukraine and Armenia who participated in the preparation of the crime have been detained," the FSB said in a statement. In this action, which Moscow describes as "terrorist", a total of 12 people are involved, he adds.
The investigation has allowed the Russian agency to follow the trail of the explosives that on October 8 caused the explosion of a truck that was circulating on the Crimean bridge.
"The explosive device was concealed in rolls of polyethylene for construction contained in 22 pallets with a total weight of 22,770 kilograms," the statement said, explaining that in early August Ukrainian agents sent that cargo with explosives from Odessa to the Bulgarian port of Ruse. (on the Danube). From there, she was transferred to the Georgian port of Poti, and then to Armenia, where she completed the customs formalities of the Eurasian Economic Union, led by Russia.
From Armenia, the shipment of explosives once again passed through Georgia. On October 4, it passed through the Vierjni Lars customs crossing and entered Russia, arriving on the 6th at the logistics center in the city of Armavir.
Finally, on October 7, the statement continues, the cargo documentation was falsified and a non-existent company in Crimea was indicated as the recipient. A day later, it detonated while driving on the Crimean bridge in the direction of Simferopol.
Russia accuses of organizing all this logistics and the attack on the General Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. And he points to a specific person, his boss, Kiril Budánov, in addition to other agents, including the one who was in charge of following the entire cargo route and who identified himself as "Iván Ivánovich".
On the morning of October 8, a truck exploded on the Crimean bridge, causing great damage to this infrastructure. The deflagration also reached seven fuel tanks of a train that was traveling towards the Black Sea peninsula at the time, causing a major fire.
As a result, two sections of the highway linking the Russian province of Krasnodar with Crimea through the Kerch Strait, between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, collapsed. Four people were killed.
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, ordered the construction of this bridge after the annexation of the Crimean peninsula, in 2014. After its inauguration, in 2018, it became a symbol of the power of Russia and that annexation. In addition to being a personal bet of the head of the Kremlin, the bridge is the only one that connects Crimea by rail and road with the Russian communications network. During the current conflict in Ukraine, it is also an important supply route for bringing military equipment to the Russian army fighting in the southern regions of Ukraine.
Two days after the attack, Russia responded by launching a barrage of missiles on Ukraine's major cities, aiming to destroy its power grid, but also killing 19 people and wounding more than a hundred, according to Ukrainian authorities.
