In Russia, the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced eight defendants to life imprisonment in the case of the explosion on the Kerch Bridge in October 2022. The sentences were handed down to Artem and Georgy Azatyan, Roman Solomko, Volodymyr Zlob, Artur Terchanyan, Oleksandr Bylin, Oleg Antipov, and Dmitry Tyazhelykh.
Points of attention
- Eight Russian citizens have been sentenced to life in prison by the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don for their involvement in the 2022 Crimean Bridge bombing.
- The convicted individuals were found to have acted as an organized group on behalf of Ukrainian special services, planting explosives in cargo that led to the collapse of two spans of the bridge and claimed four lives.
- One of the convicts, Oleg Antipov, reported the incident to the FSB after witnessing the explosion, claiming that he was unaware of the contents of the cargo he transported.
Russia sentences 8 people for blowing up Crimean bridge
According to the Russian investigation, the convicts acted as an organized group on behalf of Ukrainian special services.
It is noted that they hid the explosives in the cargo, which consisted of rolls of plastic film, and transported it from Odessa through Bulgaria, Armenia and Georgia, replacing the waybills. The defendants themselves said that they did not know about the contents of the cargo.
One of the convicts, Oleg Antipov, a St. Petersburg resident, owns a company that provided transportation services. The truck that exploded belonged to him. Antipov said that he himself came to the FSB as soon as he learned about the explosion.
According to the entrepreneur, his regular customer from Simferopol, Alexander Bylin, shortly before the explosion, asked him to help find a driver to transport 21 tons of packaging film from Armavir.
Lawyers for the convicts told the BBC that the case involved “a random group of people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time.” It is also noted that at least six of the defendants were first questioned by the FSB immediately after the explosion and released without any complaints.
The explosion on the Kerch Bridge occurred on October 8, 2022. According to Russian law enforcement, a truck was blown up on the bridge, which led to the collapse of two spans of the road and a severe fire on the railway section. Four people died.
The illegitimate President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, referring to the investigation of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, called the explosion on the Kerch Bridge a "terrorist attack" and blamed it on Ukrainian special services.
The Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, stated in 2023 that his service was involved in the bombing of the Crimean Bridge.
We will be able to talk about some operations in general after the victory, and we will not talk about others at all. This is one of our implementations, namely the destruction of the Crimean Bridge on October 8 last year.
