A military court in southern Russia has sentenced eight people to life in prison for their alleged roles in the 2022 explosion that damaged the strategically vital bridge connecting mainland Russia to occupied Crimea.
The verdict, delivered Thursday in Rostov-on-Don after a closed trial, comes more than two years after the dramatic blast that Moscow called a terrorist attack and Kyiv celebrated as a blow to Russia’s military infrastructure.
The October 2022 explosion ripped through two sections of the 12-mile Kerch Strait Bridge after a truck laden with explosives detonated, killing the truck driver and four others in a car nearby.
The attack forced months of repairs and prompted Russia to unleash a broad campaign of missile strikes on Ukraine’s power grid during the winter. The Ukrainian Security Service, the SBU, later acknowledged orchestrating the operation, though Kyiv maintains the bridge is a legitimate military target.
Russian authorities accused the defendants—identified as Artyom and Georgy Azatyan, Oleg Antipov, Alexander Bylin, Vladimir Zloba, Dmitry Tyazhelykh, Roman Solomko and Artur Terchanyan—of assisting Ukraine in the attack.
They were convicted of carrying out a terrorist act and trafficking weapons; prosecutors also accused two of the men of smuggling explosives. All eight have denied the charges, insisting they were unaware that the vehicle contained explosives and saying they were swept up as scapegoats after the blast.
Several defendants said they voluntarily approached Russian security officials to cooperate after learning of the explosion. Antipov, a logistics company owner whose firm handled shipment of the truck, said he contacted the FSB immediately and was initially released—only to be arrested days later.
In a video published by the independent outlet Mediazona, Antipov addressed the court from behind a glass enclosure after sentencing, saying the case against them ignored the evidence.
“We are innocent,” he told the court. “We all passed the polygraphs. We all cooperated fully. Not a single witness testified against us. All 116 volumes of this case say we are innocent. Show the people the truth.”
The SBU’s director, Lt. Gen. Vasyl Maliuk, had previously said he and two trusted operatives prepared the attack and used unwitting intermediaries to move the cargo. Russia has charged Maliuk in absentia, accusing him of directing a terrorist operation on Russian territory.
The Kerch Bridge holds outsized symbolic and military value for Moscow. Built after Russia seized Crimea in 2014, it is the longest bridge in Europe and a critical supply artery for Russian forces operating in southern Ukraine.
Its destruction—or even temporary disruption—poses both logistical complications for Russian troops and political embarrassment for the Kremlin.
Ukraine struck the bridge a second time in July 2023 using sea drones, killing two people and again interrupting traffic.
With Russian forces now relying heavily on the route for troop rotations, fuel, and ammunition, Moscow has tightened security around the structure and increasingly framed attacks on it as assaults on Russia itself.
The life-sentence rulings are likely to face sharp criticism from human rights groups, which have already denounced Russia’s use of closed trials, sweeping terrorism statutes, and mass arrests tied to the war.
But with the bridge remaining a central target and symbol in the conflict, Thursday’s verdict signals the Kremlin’s intent to cast the attack not as an act of war but as a crime deserving the harshest possible penalty.
