AFP
Photo taken after the explosion that caused a fire on the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia on October 8, 2022.
WAR IN UKRAINE – First Russian advances in investigating Kerch Bridge explosion. The Russian Security Services (FSB) said on Wednesday October 12 that they had arrested eight people suspected of taking part in organizing the bomb attack that hit the bridge connecting Crimea to Russian territory on Saturday.
In a press release, the FSB confirms that five Russians and “three Ukrainian and Armenian citizens” were arrested, without providing further details on the exact nationality of these last three suspects. “The explosive device was hidden in 22 pallets of plastic film rolls with a total weight of 22,770 kg,” said the FSB.
According to this source, the explosives were sent by boat from the port of Odessa in Ukraine to Ruse in Bulgaria in early August. They then passed through the port of Poti, Georgia, and were then shipped to Armenia before arriving in Russia by road, according to the FSB.
Russian services claim that the explosive device entered Russia on October 4 in a Georgian-registered truck before reaching Russia’s Krasnodar region on the Crimean border on October 6, two days before the explosion.
Two attacks by Russia foiled
The FSB claims that this “terrorist attack” was organized by the Ukrainian military intelligence service, which ensured that an agent from Kyiv coordinated the transport of the explosives and was in contact with the various intermediaries.
The FSB also said it foiled two attempted attacks, one in the Moscow region and another in Bryansk, not far from Ukraine, and accused Kyiv of preparing those attacks.
On Saturday, what Vladimir Putin described as a “terrorist attack” severely damaged the Crimean Bridge, which connects the Ukrainian peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014 to the rest of Russian territory. However, rail and road traffic on this communications route, which was vital for the Russian army, was then partially resumed. Russian authorities claim that a truck bomb is the cause of the explosion.
A new video posted online shows significant damage inflicted on the Crimean bridge following reported explosions… https://t.co/cGgXM0930j
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent)
Faced with this snub from the Kremlin, Russia launched massive bombing raids on Ukraine on Monday and Tuesday, currently killing 12 civilians and wounding more than a hundred.
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