DISINFO: Ukraine claims responsibility for terror attack on Crimean Bridge
SUMMARY
The head of the SBU, Ukraine’s main intelligence and security agency, Vasiliy Malyuk, has claimed responsibility for the deadly terrorist attack on Russia’s Crimean Bridge last October.
RESPONSE
The claim advances a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative regarding Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine.
Despite the Ukrainian Security Service's claiming of responsibility for the October 2022 explosion, the claim that the attack qualifies as an act of terror is false. In fact, the attack constituted lawful sabotage under international humanitarian law (IHL).
Throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Crimean Bridge has been a vital military supply route between Russian territory and occupied Crimea. Under the Geneva Conventions, this allows for counting the bridge among those facilities which “make an effective contribution to military action and whose total or partial destruction [...], in the circumstances ruling at the time, offers a definite military advantage [para. 2]”; in turn this, disqualifies it as a protected civilian object.
On the other hand, Russia’s retaliatory attacks hit a number of non-military facilities, residential centres, and cultural sites across Ukraine, resulting in dozens of civilian deaths. In particular, extensive material damage and numerous casualties were seen in Kyiv, a city located hundreds of kilometres away from the frontline. Given the sheer number of indiscriminate attacks on areas with no discernible military use [para. 4], Russia has come much closer than Ukraine to conducting military operations “the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population - see Article 51(2) of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions.
See here for an in-depth legal analysis of the Crimean Bridge explosion and the Russian response. See here for our debunk of the Russian claim that the July 2023 attack on the same target was also a terrorist act.