Russia accuses Ukraine of organizing Crimean Bridge blast

Moscow, Russia | Xinhua | The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that the Ukrainian military was responsible for a recent deadly explosion on the Crimean Bridge.

“The organizer of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge was the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, its head Kirill Budanov, employees and agents,” the FSB said in a statement on the findings of an investigation into the incident.

A camouflaged explosive device was hidden in a batch of construction materials, which was shipped from the Ukrainian seaport of Odessa to the Bulgarian city of Ruse in early August, it said.

The cargo was delivered to Georgia and then Armenia before arriving at a wholesale depot in south Russia’s Krasnodar region on Oct. 6, according to the FSB.

A day later, with the assistance of two Ukrainian citizens and five Russian nationals, the documents on the sender and recipient of the cargo were changed, and the freight was loaded into the truck of a Russian citizen, it added.

The truck exploded on the morning of Oct. 8 while traveling on the road part of the Crimean Bridge, causing seven fuel tanks of a train heading to the Crimean Peninsula to catch fire. Three people were killed in the blast, which also led to the partial collapse of two spans of the road bridge.

The FSB said an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, who introduced himself as “Ivan Ivanovich,” controlled the movement of the cargo along the entire route and contacted participants in the crime with a virtual anonymous phone number purchased on the Internet and a phone number registered under the name of a Ukrainian citizen.

So far, five Russian citizens and three nationals of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation for the crime, have been detained, the FSB said, adding that the investigation continues and all those responsible will be held accountable.