Crimea bridge attack arrests as market in Donetsk region attacked
Russia says it has detained eight people in connection with Saturday’s explosion on a key bridge linking Russia to Crimea.
Its FSB security service said five of those held were Russians, while the others were Ukrainian and Armenian.
It says Kyiv was behind the attack but a Ukrainian official described Russia’s investigation as “nonsense”.
The news came as at least seven people were reported killed in an attack on a market in the eastern town of Avdiivka.
Donetsk regional military head Pavlo Kyrylenko said the strike took place at a busy time, adding that at least eight others were injured.
He advised all residents of the region, which is partly Russian-occupied, to evacuate.
Elsewhere, three people, including a six-year-old girl, were seriously injured by shelling in Nikopol, in Dnipro region, a Ukrainian presidential spokesman said.
Ukraine’s Emergency Ministry reported several S-300 missiles had fallen in and around Zaporizhzhia, with one destroying a residential building in a suburb. It said a family were pulled from the wreckage.
Ukraine’s military said its troops were continuing their advance in the region, capturing another five settlements.
The blast on the Crimea Bridge was a powerful symbolic blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opened the bridge in 2018, four years after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
FSB officials said the blast was organised by “the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence, its head Kyrylo Budanov, its staff and agents”.
Agencies