Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has stated that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate was behind last week’s terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge.
In a statement on Wednesday, the FSB said that the organizers of the attack were the Directorate's head Kirill Budanov, as well as its "employees and agents.”
The FSB also said that “the explosive device was camouflaged in rolls with a construction polyethylene film and was shipped from the [Ukrainian] seaport of Odessa to Bulgaria's Ruse in early August”.
According to the FSB, control over the movement of cargo along the entire route and contacts with participants in the criminal scheme were carried out by an Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate employee who presented himself as Ivan Ivanovich. He used both a virtual anonymous number purchased on the Internet and registered to Ukrainian citizen Sergey Vladimirovich Andreichenko for coordination.
“Five citizens of Russia, as well as three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained”, according to the statement.
The FSB added that the investigation into the terrorist attack is underway and that “all organizers and accomplices, including foreigners, will be held accountable in accordance with Russian law.”
Observers: Crimean Bridge Attack Takes Ukraine Crisis to New Phase Where Infrastructure is Fair Game
8 October 2022, 14:50 GMT
The statement comes after Russia launched a series of missile strikes on Ukraine on Monday in the wake of the October 8 Crimean bridge attack after confirming Ukrainian special forces’ involvement, with the strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and communications posts across the country. Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that the strikes would be followed up if Ukrainian attacks against Russian infrastructure continue.
Late last week, Putin said during a meeting with Russia’s investigative chief Alexander Bastrykin that Ukrainian special services had authorized and performed the explosion on the Kerch Strait Bridge linking Crimea with the rest of Russia.
“Here, as you have just reported, there is no doubt. This is a terrorist attack aimed at destroying critical civilian infrastructure of the Russian Federation,” Putin pointed out, adding that "the authors and executors, those who ordered it are the special services of Ukraine.”
On Saturday, Russia's National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) said that a truck was blown up on the Crimean Bridge, which caused seven fuel tanks of a freight train to catch fire and two car spans to partially collapse. According to preliminary data from the Russian Investigative Committee, at least three people died as a result of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge.
Late on Saturday night, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said that Russia had resumed railway service on the Crimean Bridge and that all scheduled trains would be able to cross it, both passenger and freight ones