AP
—
A Russian court on Thursday convicted eight people on terrorism charges over an attack on a bridge connecting Russia and Moscow’s illegally annexed Crimea, a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine.
The court sentenced all defendants to life imprisonment.
In an attack on the bridge in October 2022, a truck bomb blew up two sections of the bridge, requiring months of repairs. The explosion killed the truck driver and four people in nearby cars. The Russian government condemned the attack as an act of terrorism and retaliated by bombing civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, targeting the country’s power grid during the winter.
Ukraine’s Security Service, known as SBU, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Eight people were arrested, including Russians, Ukrainians and Armenians. Five others, including three Ukrainians and two Georgians, were charged in absentia.
Artyom, Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bilin, Vladimir Zurova, Dmitry Chazhelyk, Roman Solomko and Artur Telchanyan were charged with terrorist attacks and illegal arms trafficking. Mr. Solomko and Mr. Telchanyan were also charged with smuggling explosives.
Russian authorities accused them of assisting Ukraine in organizing the attack. According to Russian media reports, all those arrested denied the charges and claimed they did not know the truck was carrying explosives.
SBU head Lieutenant General Vasyl Mariuk said in a 2023 interview that he and two other “trusted staff members” prepared the attack and used others without their knowledge.
A military court in Rostov-on-Don, a city in southern Russia about 100 kilometers east of the border with Ukraine, began trying the defendants behind closed doors in February 2025. Russian authorities have accused Mariuk of organizing the attack.
Antipov, an entrepreneur whose logistics company was responsible for transporting the cargo in the exploding truck, went to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) as soon as he heard about the explosion, but was unable to contact the driver of the car.
He and his wife, Irina, told independent news site Mediazona that they hoped to cooperate with the investigation. Security officials initially released him, but he was arrested a few days later.
A video published by Mediazona showed Mr. Antipov addressing the court after the verdict, insisting: “We are innocent. We are innocent.”
“We all passed the polygraph, all eight of us. We all proved our innocence. We cooperated fully. We went to the police ourselves and testified. Not one of us testified against us,” Antipov said from a glass cage in the courtroom alongside other defendants. “All the witnesses say we are innocent. All the evidence shows we are innocent. All 116 volumes (of the docket) say we are innocent. We want people to see the truth.”
The bridge connecting Crimea to Russia has significant logistical and psychological significance for Moscow, as a key artery for military and civilian supplies, and as the Kremlin’s claim to control of the peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014.
After Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukraine attacked the bridge twice: with a truck bomb in October 2022 and with a maritime drone in July 2023. Two people were killed in the second attack.
The 19-kilometre-long bridge over the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, carries road and rail traffic in separate sections and is vital to sustaining Russian military operations in southern Ukraine.
This bridge is the longest in Europe and is a source of great pride for Russia. Construction began in 2016, about two years after Russia annexed Crimea, and was completed in just over two years.
The bridge was built despite strong opposition from Ukraine and is the most visible and constant reminder of Russia’s claims to Crimea.
