- Kyiv later claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying they were aimed at hampering Moscow’s logistics“
- The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment,” a court said
Russian court on Thursday jailed eight people for life over huge 2022 explosions that partially destroyed the Crimean bridge, an attack both Kyiv and Moscow said was organized by Ukraine’s secret services.
Five people were killed when the 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge which links the Crimean Peninsula to Russia was hit by a truck bomb blast on October 8, 2022, eight months after Moscow attacked Ukraine.
Kyiv later claimed responsibility for the blasts, saying they were aimed at hampering Moscow’s logistics.
The Crimean Peninsula — annexed by Russia in 2014 — has been a key supply route for Moscow’s troops fighting in the south of Ukraine.
“The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment,” Russia’s southern military court in the city of Rostov-on-Don said on Telegram.
The men were tried in a closed-door hearing at a military court.
They have maintained their innocence throughout the trial and a lawyer told state media that the decision would be appealed.
The bridge is seen by both Ukraine and Russia as a symbol of Moscow’s 2014 seizure of the Crimean Peninsula
President Vladimir Putin personally inaugurated the bridge, which links Russia to Crimea, in 2018 — even driving a truck across it.
Moscow had maintained the crossing was safe despite the fighting, but it has been targeted repeatedly throughout the war.
The men were charged with carrying out a “terrorist act” that caused death and illegally obtaining weapons as an organized group, the court said. Two were also charged with smuggling explosives.
AFP
