Russia arrests eight over Crimea bridge attack as Putin again blames Ukraine

Five Russians, three Ukrainians and an Armenian held by police

Russia has arrested eight people over the explosion that damaged the Crimea Bridge at the weekend.

Those arrested include five Russians, three Ukrainians and an Armenian. Moscow has previously blamed Ukrainian secret services for the explosion.

On Wednesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said the explosion was organised Ukrainian military intelligence and its director, Kyrylo Budanov. The explosive device was moved from Ukraine to Russia via Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, the FSB claimed.

The FSB, the main successor to the Soviet-era KGB, also said that it had prevented further Ukrainian attacks in both Moscow and the western Russian city of Bryansk. Later, Russian president Vladimir Putin repeated a claim that Ukraine’s special services were behind the attack.

Three people were killed in the blast on the bridge linking Russia and Crimea.

The explosion occurred when a truck blew up on Saturday morning, according to Moscow, and caused seven fuel tanker wagons to catch fire on a train passing on the upper level.

At least three sections of the road collapsed into the water below following the explosion, a route through which ships travel between the Black and Azov seas.

Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement in the bridge blast, but some Ukrainian officials have celebrated the damage.

The explosion on the twelve mile-long bridge destroyed one section of the road bridge, temporarily halting road traffic. It also destroyed several fuel tankers on a train heading towards the annexed peninsula from neighbouring southern Russia.

Flames and smoke rise after the explosion on the Crimea bridge (Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

The bridge, a prestige project personally opened by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018, had become logistically vital to his military campaign, with supplies to Russian troops fighting in south Ukraine channelled through it.

Russian forces launched mass missile strikes against Ukrainian cities, including power supplies, on Monday morning.

At a televised meeting of Russia’s Security Council on Monday, Putin said the strikes were a retaliation for the Crimea bridge blast.

In response, a senior Ukrainian official dismissed news of the FSB investigation as a “nonsense”.

“The whole activity of the FSB and Investigative Committee is nonsense,” said interior minister spokesman Andriy Yusov.

Yusov described the FSB and Investigative Committee as “fake structures that serve the Putin regime, so we will definitely not comment on their next statements”.