MOSCOW: Russia has arrested at least eight suspects in connection with an attack on the strategic bridge that connects Crimea with Russia.
The eight arrested suspects include five Russians, while the others were Ukrainian and Armenian.
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A massive explosion on the Crimea Bridge on Saturday severely damaged the strategic bridge that links annexed Crimea to Russia.
Russia has termed the blast at the bridge as a “terrorist attack”, which it said was organised by the Ukrainian secret services.
The arrests were made by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia.
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The FSB of Russia said that the explosives were stored in plastic film rolls.
The explosives had left the Odesa Post in Ukraine in August.
They were transited through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia before entering Russia, the FSB claimed.
Although Russia’s FSB alleged that Ukraine was behind the attack on the bridge, a Ukrainian official described Russian investigation as ‘nonsense’.
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.
“The whole activity of the FSB and Investigative Committee is nonsense,” Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne cited interior minister spokesman Andriy Yusov as saying.
He described the FSB and Investigative Committee as “fake structures that serve the Putin regime, so we will definitely not comment on their next statements”.
One section of the 19km (12 miles) long bridge was destroyed, temporarily halting road traffic, in addition to several fuel tankers on a train heading towards the annexed peninsula from southern Russia.