A farmer from temporarily occupied Kherson region, Roman Solomko, became one of eight convicted in the case of the explosion on the Kerch Bridge, despite the fact that, according to him, he did not know about participating in an SBU special operation. A Russian court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the defendants to life imprisonment — an unprecedentedly harsh verdict that human rights activists and Ukrainian authorities call political.
This is written by journalist Andriy Tsaplienko.
Solomko was accused of “coordinating the route” and “finding a warehouse for unloading”, although he himself voluntarily turned to the security forces after he learned that the investigation was looking for people who had been in contact with the cargo carriers.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine, most of the convicted performed ordinary household or work operations and did not know that they were being used unwittingly. This was also confirmed by the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, emphasizing that the Russians “closed” 22 people, some of whom even came to the FSB themselves.
Along with Solomko, life sentences were given to Artur Terchanyan, Artem and Heorhiy Azatiani, Volodymyr Zlob, Oleksandr Bylin, Oleh Antipov and Dmytro Tyazhkykh. They were all charged under the article on terrorism.
The head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasyl Malyuk, said that he personally and two trusted officers were responsible for developing and carrying out this special operation.
After that explosion, the Kerch Bridge was attacked two more times.
On July 17, 2023, the second attack took place — then Ukrainian drones crashed into a bridge support and damaged one of the road spans. According to Vasyl Malyuk, it was a joint operation of the SBU and the Naval Forces of Ukraine. Specially developed marine drones Sea Baby were used to carry it out.
The third strike on the Kerch Bridge occurred on June 3 of this year by detonating the underwater supports of the structure. According to the SBU, more than a thousand kilograms of explosives in TNT equivalent were used for the detonation. The supports had been mined in advance, the Ukrainian agency claimed.