KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – SUNDAY, 9 OCTOBER 2022, 20:32
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Ukraine’s Security Service of blowing up the Crimean Bridge.
Source: RIA Novosti, a pro-Kremlin Russian media outlet, and TASS, a Russian state-owned news outlet, citing Vladimir Putin during his meeting with Aleksandr Bastrykin, Head of Russia’s Investigative Committee
Details: Putin claimed that the Crimean Bridge explosion was ordered, coordinated, and carried out by the Ukrainian Security Service.
The Russian President also called the explosion “a terrorist attack”.
Quote by Putin: “There’s… no doubt. It’s a terrorist attack that aims to destroy critically important civilian infrastructure of Russia”.
Meanwhile, Bastrykin said that Russian prosecutors have opened a case under the article on “terrorism” of the Criminal Code.
The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee told Putin that the Ukrainian Security Service was responsible for organising the “terrorist attack” on the Crimean Bridge. He claimed that Russian citizens living in third countries helped the Ukrainian Security Service to prepare the attack.
“We have already established the route of the truck that exploded. It went through Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, Krasnodar…We have identified the carriers. With the help of operatives of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB), we have been able to identify suspects from among those who could have prepared the terrorist attack,” Bastrykin said.
Find out more: Satellite images of the damaged Crimean Bridge
Background:
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On the morning of 8 October, a powerful fire broke out on the railway portion of the Crimean Bridge.
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Russian occupation authorities of Crimea stated that a truck allegedly exploded on the bridge. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation reported that 3 people were killed as a result of the explosion.
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Later the same day, the occupiers claimed that the movement of cars and buses across the Crimean Bridge had resumed. Freight and passenger train traffic over the bridge was also restored.
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A source told Ukrainska Pravda that the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) was behind the explosion on the Crimean Bridge. The SSU itself said that it will not comment on its own role, or on the role of any other Ukrainian government bodies, in the Crimean Bridge explosion until after Ukraine’s victory.
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Oleksii Danilov, Secretary of the National Security Council of Ukraine, has shared a video of the fire on the Crimean Bridge accompanied by the song “Happy Birthday, Mr President” [referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday on 7 October – ed.]. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Head of the Ministry for Digital Transformation, posted an amusing image of the Russian air defence system. Mykhailo Podoliak, Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, has described the explosion on the Crimean Bridge as a manifestation of the conflict between Russian security forces.
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