Eight people were detained on suspicion of involvement in the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge

Eight people were detained in connection with the initiated criminal case: five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia.

“It has been established that the organizer of the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge was the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, its head Kirill Budanov, employees and agents. The explosive device was camouflaged in rolls with a construction polyethylene film on 22 pallets with a total weight of 22,770 kilograms, and in early August of this year. sent from the seaport of Odessa to the Bulgarian Ruse under contract No. 02/08/2022 between Translogistic UA LLC (Kyiv) and Baltex Capital SA (Ruse),” the FSB said in a statement (quoted by RIA Novosti).

After that, the cargo proceeded from Bulgaria to the port of Poti in Georgia, from where it was sent to Armenia. Ukrainians Tsyurkalo Mikhail Vladimirovich, Kovac Denis Olegovich, Solomko Roman Ivanovich were involved in the process. Georgian citizens Inosaridze Sandro and a broker named Levan, as well as Armenian citizen Artur Terchanyan, took part in the operation.

According to the FSB, in the period from September 29 to October 3, customs clearance of the cargo took place in accordance with the rules of the EAEU, after which the documentation was replaced. LLC "GU AR GROUP" (Armenia, Alaverdi) became the new sender, and Moscow LLC "Leader" was indicated as the recipient. The cargo reached Russia through the border with Georgia, having passed the Upper Lars checkpoint on October 4 on a DAF truck. On October 6, the truck arrived at the wholesale base in Armavir, where it was unloaded.

“On October 7, with the assistance of R. Solomko, a citizen of Ukraine Zlob Vladimir Vasilievich, born in 1987, and five more established citizens of Russia, the documents for the cargo were again changed, the sender was indicated LLC "TEK-34" (Ulyanovsk), and the recipient is a non-existent company in the Republic of Crimea. On the same day, the pallets were loaded into the truck of Russian citizen Makhir Yusubov, born in 1971, who left for Simferopol, and on October 8, 2022, at 06.03, an explosion was carried out while traveling along the Crimean bridge”, - the FSB DSO said.

The service clarified that an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, introducing himself as "Ivan Ivanovich", exercised control over the movement of cargo along the entire route and contacted the participants in the operation. To do this, he used a virtual anonymous number purchased via the Internet, as well as the number of Ukrainian Andreichenko Sergey Vladimirovich from Kremenchug.

“At the moment, five citizens of Russia, three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained as part of a criminal case,” the statement said.