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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
World
Will Stewart & Milica Cosic

First pictures of innocent victims in Crimean bridge attack to humiliate Putin

The first pictures of two innocent victims killed in the Crimean Bridge blast on October 8 have been revealed.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has condemned the attack on the Kerch Bridge as “an act of terrorism”.

And Ukraine has now braced itself for huge new attacks by the tyrant, in alleged revenge for the carnage ensued on the £3.3 billion bridge Putin commissioned and opened on the 15 May, 2018.

On the Kremlin Telegram channel, the despot has also gone on to claim that: “There is no doubt. This is an act of terrorism aimed at destroying critically important civilian infrastructure,” adding that this attack was “devised, carried out and ordered by the Ukrainian special services”.

He has already rained down missiles on Zaporizhzhia as a 'welcome message' from brutal new war commander general Sergei Surovikin - causing civilian deaths.

Eduard Chuchakin and his wife had been passing the bridge in their Cadillac as it exploded (Eduard Chuchakin)
Prior to working as a tour guide, Zoya Sofronova was a journalist (social media/e2w)

Heavy new attacks were also reported early today in Kyiv and Dnipro.

And ex-Kremlin president Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia ’s security council, has even gone as far as to vow to kill unspecified Ukrainian “terrorists”, saying: “The failed state of Ukraine is the mastermind and perpetrator of the crime.

“This is a terrorist act and sabotage carried out by the criminal regime in Kiev.

“There is no doubt, and there never was."

He continued: “All reports and conclusions have been drawn. Russia's response to this crime can only be the direct destruction of the terrorists. In the way that is accepted in the world.

“That is what the citizens of Russia are waiting for.”

Makhir Yusubov, a relative of the truck owner, is suspected to have been driving the lorry which exploded on Crimean bridge (Mash Kuban)

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that Eduard Chuchakin, 53, and his wife Zoya Sofronova, 33, well known tourist guides and documentary-makers in St Petersburg, died on the spot in the bridge blast.

The couple were both history graduates of Putin’s alma mater St Petersburg State University where Eduard was a specialist in the tsarist architecture of St Petersburg, and Zoya had been a journalist.

Reportedly, the pair had been travelling in their Cadillac car en route to film in Crimea for their YouTube channel.

Tragically, their vehicle plunged into the waters of the Kerch Strait when several sections of the bridge horrifyingly collapsed from the blast.

Black smoke billows from a fire on the Kerch bridge that links Crimea to Russia, after a truck exploded, near Kerch, on Saturday on October 8 (Vladimir Mordunov/UPI/REX/Shutterstock)

The vehicle was close to a truck which was reported to have contained a huge quantity of explosives.

A report stated that: “Zoya and Eduard were travelling with their Moscow friend to shoot a sequel to a documentary about the Romanov [Russian royal] family".

The bodies of the pair were pulled from the water below the bridge, the report added.

Additionally, it has been reported that the driver of the truck carrying the ammunition, Makhir Yusubov, 52, was also believed to have been killed in the blast.

Russia is now gearing up to blame the West for the bridge attack.

This is because Putin's close ally, Alexander Bastrykin, head of the Russian Investigative Committee, said the red-coloured truck had been to NATO country Bulgaria as well as Georgia, Armenia, North Ossetia, the Russian region of Krasnodar ahead of the explosion.

Russian war reporter Alexander Kots has gone on to claim that the explosives were filled into the truck in Bulgaria (Alexander Kots)

His claims have been backed up by Russian war reporter Alexander Kots, who said that two trucks were involved in the operation. A cargo - with 22 loads of polyethylene film, with nine rolls - arrived by sea in the Georgian port of Poti from Bulgaria after crossing the Black Sea.

The receiving customer was a "citizen of Ukraine", who organised for the goods to be loaded onto the truck with “foreign number plates”.

From Poti, the large vehicle travelled to Armenia, where the cargo was cleared under custom union rules applying to some ex-USSR countries, it was claimed.

It then travelled up to Russia, where it entered from Georgia via the Upper Lars checkpoint - which is currently being used by men fleeing Putin’s mobilisation call-up.

The Kerch bridge was opened in 2018 by Vladimir Putin (Vladimir Mordunov/UPI/REX/Shutterstock)

At some point in the journey, the rolls of polythene with explosives rolled into them were transferred to the truck which exploded on the bridge, it was claimed.

Kots believes this was done in Bulgaria, saying: “The explosives had somehow been placed in the [polythene] film rolls.

“And this was done in Bulgaria…

“So, apart from Ukraine, foreign special services could have been involved in the organisation of this terrorist act."

The journalist went on to add: “The driver of the first truck is already giving evidence.

“Most likely, like the driver of the second truck was used blindly and was unaware of what he was carrying.”

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