Russia has arrested eight suspects over an explosion that damaged a strategic bridge linking annexed Crimea to Russia.
Moscow regards Saturday’s blast on the Kerch Strait Bridge as a “terrorist attack” organised by Ukrainian secret services.
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Wednesday that it had arrested five Russians and three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, Interfax reported.
Explosives were stored in plastic film rolls that left the Ukrainian port of Odesa in August and transited through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia before entering Russia, the service said.
The FSB accused Ukraine’s military intelligence service and its director Kyrylo Budanov of organising the attack.
Twelve people were also identified as accomplices, TASS reported.
According to the Russian news agency, at least four people were killed in the explosion.
Ukraine has not officially confirmed its involvement, but some Ukrainian officials celebrated the incident.
A senior Ukrainian official dismissed Russia’s investigation.
“The whole activity of the FSB and Investigative Committee is nonsense,” Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne cited interior minister spokesman Andriy Yusov as saying.
