Crimean bridge blown up by solid rocket fuel in 2022

A homemade explosive device equivalent to 10 tonnes of TNT was used to blow up the Crimean (Kerch Strait) Bridge in October 2022. It was based on solid rocket fuel concealed in reels of polyethylene film.

Source: Russian daily newspaper Kommersant, with reference to investigation materials

Details: A Russian investigation found that the film, on 22 pallets weighing 22.7 tonnes, was sent from the city of Odesa to the Bulgarian town of Ruse in early August 2022. From there, it went to the Georgian city of Poti and then to Yerevan. While the film was in the Yerevan terminal Transalyans, the cargo was cleared through customs, after which part of the accompanying documents was replaced.

The film was transported in a DAF truck across the Georgian-Russian border at the Verkhny Lars checkpoint on 4 October and it was delivered to a wholesale base in Armavir (Russia's Krasnodar Krai) two days later. There, the pallets were loaded into an International ProStar truck with a trailer, driven by Russian citizen Makhir Yusubov, who was unaware of any plans. The driver was supposed to deliver the film from an Ulyanovsk-based company to the registered address of Extra LLC in Simferopol. The case materials said such complex movements were necessary to divert attention from the cargo.

Russian experts believe that a foreign-made hexogen-based explosive substance was used to detonate the explosive mixture. 

Meanwhile, the detonator, also hidden under the film, was triggered by a signal from a GPS navigator "at the moment it passed a predetermined point on the route". This was the 156th kilometre of the Novorossiysk-Kerch motorway.

As a result of the explosion, two spans of the bridge connecting the 235th and 236th supports collapsed, and 17 freight train tank wagons were damaged.

The Russian Investigative Committee believes that the Security Service of Ukraine was behind this explosion.

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