Russian court sentences 8 to life imprisonment for 2022 Crimean bridge attack

A Russian court on Thursday sentenced eight people to life in prison over huge 2022 explosions that partially destroyed the Crimean bridge, an attack both Kyiv and Moscow said was organised by Ukraine’s secret services.

Five people were killed when the 19-kilometre (12-mile) Kerch road and rail bridge was hit by a truck bomb blast on October 8, 2022, eight months after Moscow launched its all-out offensive on Ukraine.

Kyiv later claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it was aimed at hampering Moscow’s logistics.

The Crimean peninsula – annexed by Russia in 2014 – has been a key supply route for Russia’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 attack set ablaze seven oil tankers being transported by train and collapsed two sections of the highway, Russia said.

The men were tried in a closed-door hearing at a military court.

The bridge is seen by both Ukraine and Russia as a hugely symbolic installation 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 organised group, the court said. Two were also charged with smuggling explosives.