A Russian military court in Rostov-on-Don on Thursday sentenced eight men to life in prison for their alleged roles in the 2022 explosion on the Kerch Bridge, following a closed-door trial that defense lawyers say targeted people who had no idea what they were transporting.
A truck bomb ripped through the 19-kilometer (12-mile) Kerch Bridge on Oct. 8, 2022, killing five – a major blow to Russian infrastructure eight months into the full-scale invasion.
Kyiv later acknowledged carrying out the strike, saying it was intended to cripple Russia’s logistics lifeline.
The annexed Crimean peninsula has long been one of Moscow’s key supply corridors for its forces in southern Ukraine.
“The defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment,” Russia’s Southern Military Court in Rostov-on-Don said on Telegram.
The court convicted the group of terrorism and transporting explosives, issuing fines of up to 700,000 rubles ($9,000) and ordering more than 7 billion rubles ($90 billion) in compensation claims – including nearly 15 million rubles ($192,000) demanded by Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
The defendants included Russian, Ukrainian, and Armenian nationals. None pleaded guilty. All insisted they had no idea what the cargo contained and said they were simply performing their routine work.
Families told Russian media they were ordinary entrepreneurs and drivers who routinely handled cross-border shipments. Several voluntarily approached investigators after the blast.
Prosecutors’ Account of the Scheme
According to Russian prosecutors, cited by Mediazona, the operation began months earlier when Kherson farmer Roman Solomko devised a route for importing agricultural equipment from China through Russian territory to occupied Kherson.
Investigators say the method caught the attention of Mykhailo Tsyurkalo, a Ukrainian national now on an international wanted list.
Tsyurkalo allegedly contacted Solomko through an intermediary, claiming he needed to move “a shipment of construction film” from Bulgaria.
Solomko’s former lawyer said the farmer merely shared knowledge of how to transport cargo, but prosecutors claim this set the stage for the operation.
The shipment traveled by sea to Poti, Georgia, then was driven through Armenia and Georgia into Russia by Armenian citizen Artur Terchanyan, reportedly passing three customs checks without incident.
In Armavir, Terchanyan delivered the cargo to a warehouse run by brothers Artem and Georgy Azatyan, arranged by entrepreneur Vladimir Zlob, a friend of Solomko.
The next morning, driver Mahir Yusubov, who later died in the blast, picked up the load after accepting a job through a private freight exchange.
The order had been posted by Oleg Antipov, head of a St. Petersburg logistics firm, whose contact was provided by Crimean produce supplier Alexander Bylin.
Both men voluntarily approached authorities after the explosion, though Bylin was later detained.
Trial in Secrecy
The trial, held in secrecy since early 2025, focused on Russia’s claim that Ukrainian intelligence smuggled explosives disguised as construction film through multiple countries before detonating the truck on the bridge.
A year after the blast, Head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) Vasyl Malyuk described the operation, saying the explosives – equivalent to 21 tons of TNT – were sealed in metal cylinders and hidden inside civilian cargo. He added that most participants in the transport chain were “used in the dark.”
Kherson farmer Roman Solomko will serve the first seven years in prison before being transferred to a maximum-security colony.
Others, including trucker Artur Terchanyan and logistics manager Oleg Antipov, received similar phased sentences: several years in prison followed by life in a special-regime colony.