Eight Arrested for Crimea Bridge Attack, More Explosions Heard

Russia claimed on Oct. 12, 2022, to have detained eight people in relation to the Oct. 8 explosion on a crucial bridge connecting Russia and Crimea.

Five of those detained, according to Russia’s FSB security service, were Russians, while the others were Ukrainian and Armenian.

A Ukrainian official called the Russian investigation’s claims that Kyiv was responsible for the attack “nonsense.”

The destruction of a vital component of Russia’s civil infrastructure was the target of what President Putin called an “act of terrorism.”

The blast, according to FSB officials, was planned by “the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, its head Kyrylo Budanov, its staff and agents.”

They claimed that the explosive devices were transported from the Ukrainian port of Odesa via a circuitous route, travelling first by sea to Bulgaria, then through Georgia, and finally overland through Armenia before being transported into Russia by lorry.

But Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the directorate, dismissed the Russian allegations.

“All the activities of the FSB and (Russia’s) Investigative Committee are nonsense,” he informed Ukrainian reporters. “They are fake structures which serve the Putin regime, so we’re definitely not going to comment on their latest announcements.”

The news broke as Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Nikopol in Ukraine reported explosions.

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In Kherson, one of the biggest cities under Russian occupation, journalist Hugo Bachega reported hearing five explosions, and there were unconfirmed reports that the city’s air defense system had been enabled. According to him, it was unclear what had set off the explosions. 

Additionally, there were explosions in a number of cities under Ukrainian control.

According to a spokesman for the Ukrainian presidential office, shelling in Nikopol in the Dnipro region, seriously injured three people, among them a six-year-old girl.

A residential building in a suburb was destroyed by one of the S-300 missiles that fell in and around Zaporizhzhia, according to the emergency ministry of Ukraine. A family was reportedly rescued from the rubble.

 On Oct. 10, 2022, 19 people were killed as a result of a wave of missile strikes carried out by Russian forces across the nation, including in central Kyiv.

In response to “a new wave of terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged nations to impose additional sanctions on Moscow after additional attacks on Oct. 11.

When asked on Oct. 12 by British journalists if the goals of Russia’s special military operation, or what Moscow refers to as its invasion, remained the same, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that they were “exactly the same.”

“These goals only become more relevant against the backdrop of the actions of the Ukrainian regime,” he stated.

Putin called for the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine in February, when he began the invasion. He uses these terms to refer to the overthrow of the Ukrainian government, which Moscow views as fascist.

The military of Ukraine reported that five more settlements had been taken by its troops as they continued their advance in the area.