MOSCOW, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Russia’s Federal Security Service said on Wednesday it had detained five Russians and three Ukrainian and Armenian citizens in connection with the bombing of a key bridge to Crimea Related, the attack was allegedly planned by Ukraine.
The FSB said the attack, which was organized by Ukraine’s military intelligence service and its director, Kyrylo Budanov, echoed President Vladimir Putin’s allegations of what he called a “terrorist attack” on critical civilian infrastructure.
“The organizers of the terrorist attack on the Crimea Bridge were the main intelligence service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, its head, Kerilo Budanov, its employees and agents,” said the FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB.
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Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in Saturday’s bridge bombing, but some Ukrainian officials celebrated the destruction, with an unidentified Ukrainian official telling The New York Times that Kyiv was behind the attack.
The explosive devices were wrapped in rolls of construction polyethylene film on 22 pallets weighing a total of 22.7 tonnes and shipped from Ukraine to Russia via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, the FSB said.
“An employee of HUR MO controls the movement of goods along the entire route and engages with participants in criminal transport schemes,” the FSB said in a statement using the Ukrainian military intelligence acronym.
The 12-mile (19-kilometer)-long road and rail bridge, a prestigious project that Putin personally opened in 2018, has become logistically critical to his military campaign to fight in southern Ukraine. supplies of the Russian army.
The explosion destroyed a section of the road bridge, temporarily halting traffic. It also destroyed several oil tankers on a train en route from neighbouring southern Russia to the annexed Crimea peninsula.
On Monday, Russian troops launched a massive missile attack on Ukrainian cities, including power supplies, in what Putin said was retaliation for the bridge bombing.
The FSB, led by Putin ally Alexander Boltnikov, also said it had prevented Ukrainian attacks in Moscow and the western Russian city of Bryansk.
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Reporting at Reuters; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge
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