Russia accuses SBU chief of masterminding Crimea bridge attack in 2023

Russian prosecutors have pressed charges in absentia against Vasyl Maliuk, chief of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) of organizing in 2023 a “terrorist attack” on the Crimea bridge that connects the temporarily occupied peninsula with mainland Russia.

This was reported by Crimea.Realities with reference to the Russian state-run agency TASS, Ukrinform saw.

According to Kremlin media reports, Russian prosecutors classified the attack on the bridge as an "act of terror".

The court Russia had already ruled to arrest Vasyl Maliuk on another similar charge – setting up an explosion aiming to destroy the Crimea bridge back in 2022.

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On March 26, 2024, the head of the SBU confirmed Ukraine’s "two successful missions in the area of ​​the Crimea bridge."

As reported earlier, in October 2022, an explosion occurred on the Crimea bridge across the Kerch Strait. Another blast rocked the bridge on July 17, 2023. Russian authorities and security forces blamed Ukrainian security agencies in both incidents.

As Ukrinform reported, citing Maliuk as saying, during the first special operation to blow up the bridge in October 2022, the SBU employed a truck carrying 21 tons of explosives, wrapped in thick film, preventing border control scanners from detecting them.

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The second time, the Crimea Bridge was attacked using sea surface drones with an explosive payload.

Later, Maliuk said Russia stopped using the bridge as an military supply route feeding the war.