Head of Ukraine's Security Service on SSU involvement in Crimean bridge attack

Saturday, 27 May 2023, 00:20

Vasyl Maliuk, Head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), commenting on the explosion on the Crimean (Kerch) Bridge in October 2022, said that the SSU carried out "certain measures" for this.

Source: Maliuk in the interview with Dmytro Komarov

Quote: "According to the international legislation and the customs and traditions of warfare, considering the fact that it was a logistical route that we were obliged to cut off the enemy, certain such measures were accordingly carried out. However, I will not say the details at all."

Details: According to Maliuk, Russia is conducting a pseudo-investigation into the situation with the Crimean (Kerch) Bridge.

The head of the SSU added that the occupiers imprisoned more than 20 of their fellow citizens and "incriminated each of them with a certain complicity in the whole process."

Maliuk urged not to discuss this situation, but "it's better to follow all this."

He also said that the successful attack by naval drones on a ship of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation in Sevastopol Bay last October was a planned special operation of the SSU.

Background: 

  • On the morning of 8 October 2022, a large fire broke out on the railroad portion of the Crimean Bridge. Russian occupation authorities in Crimea claimed that a truck exploded on the Crimean Bridge. Meanwhile, Volodymyr Konstantynov, the Russian-appointed Head of the "Crimean Parliament", alleged that "Ukrainian vandals" had damaged the road surface on the Crimean Bridge.
  • Later, Russian occupation media posted a video that captured the moment of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge.
  • In October 2022, Russia’s FSB reported on an investigation into the explosion on the Crimean Bridge. A total of eight people were detained and, according to the investigators, the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and Kyrylo Budanov, its head, are responsible for orchestrating the explosion.
  • In December 2022, Vasyl Maliuk, the acting Head of the Security Service of Ukraine, hinted that the Ukrainian special services could be behind the undermining of the bridge.

According to him, the SSU conducted this special operation together with Ukraine’s Navy.

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