Eight defendants in the case of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge in October 2022 have been sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court in Rostov-on-Don. A total of 13 people are accused in the case - citizens of Russia, Ukraine, and Armenia.
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced eight defendants in the case of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge in October 2022 to life imprisonment. This was reported on Thursday, November 27, by a correspondent from the publication "Mediazona" from the courtroom. The court also ordered the defendants to pay over 7 billion rubles in damages to the victims for material damage and moral harm, including a claim from the Russian Ministry of Defense for 14 million 847 thousand rubles.
A total of 13 people are defendants in the case - citizens of Russia, Ukraine, and Armenia. Eight of them have been detained: Artem Azatyan, Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Vladimir Zloba, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, Roman Solomko, and Artur Terchanyan. All of them have been found guilty of terrorism and transporting explosives. Solomko and Terchanyan have also been convicted of smuggling explosive substances.
According to the investigation, six entrepreneurs, a farmer, and a truck driver helped Ukrainian special services blow up a truck with explosives on the Crimean Bridge, resulting in the deaths of five people. None of the defendants admitted guilt - all insist that they were unaware of the cargo and were simply doing their regular work. The court considered the case in a closed session.
Explosion of the Crimean Bridge in Autumn 2022
On October 8, around six in the morning, an explosion occurred on the bridge connecting the Krasnodar Krai of Russia with the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. As a result, two spans of the Crimean Bridge intended for vehicular traffic collapsed. The driver of the truck carrying the explosives and four others in a neighboring vehicle were killed. According to Russian security forces, the explosive device, hidden in rolls of polyethylene film, was transported from Odessa through Bulgaria, Armenia, and Georgia, with the cargo documents being falsified.
In August 2023, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Vasily Malyuk, admitted that this was an operation of his agency and revealed some details. According to him, the explosives were wrapped in cellophane to hide them from customs scanners. The resulting rolls, which looked like "absolutely civilian cargo," filled an entire container, with a total weight equivalent to 21 tons of TNT. Additionally, the Ukrainian special service managed to deactivate Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems that jam GPS signals.
Malyuk did not disclose details on how the explosives were delivered from Ukraine to the bridge, stating only that the entire operation was carried out exclusively by the SBU.
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