Marta Hychko09:23, 05/03/24

Investigators believe that the bridge was blown up by the Security Service of Ukraine in the fall of 2022.

In October 2022, the Crimean bridge was blown up with an improvised explosive device with a power equivalent to 10 tons of TNT. At its core was solid rocket fuel, hidden in a reel of polyethylene film.

This is reported by the Russian publication Kommersant with reference to investigation materials. The investigators allegedly established that the film on 22 pallets weighing 22.7 tons was sent from Odessa to the Bulgarian city of Ruse. From there she went to Georgian Poti, and then to Yerevan. At the “Transalyan” terminal, the cargo was cleared through customs, replacing part of the accompanying documents.

On October 4, the film was brought across the Georgian-Russian border at the Verkhniy Lars checkpoint, and in two days it was delivered to the wholesale base in Armavir (Krasnodar Territory). There, the pallets were loaded into an International ProStar car with a trailer driven by Russian citizen Makhir Yusubov. The driver allegedly did not know about the plans and was supposed to deliver the film from Ulyanovsk PEK-34 LLC to the address of “Extra” LLC registered in Simferopol.

In the case materials, it is noted that such complex movements were necessary in order to weaken the attention of security forces to the cargo. According to the conclusions of Russian experts, a foreign-made explosive based on hexane was used to detonate the explosive mixture.

The detonator, also hidden under the film, was triggered by the signal of the GPS-navigator “at the moment of passing a predetermined point of the route” on the 156th kilometer section of the Novorossiysk-Kerch highway.

As a result of the explosion, two spans of the bridge connecting the 235th and 236th piers collapsed, and 17 tank cars of the freight train were damaged. The RF investigator believes that the explosion was organized by the Security Service of Ukraine.

(C)UNIAN 2024