MOSCOW (Reuters) – A courtroom on Tuesday sentenced a former senior officer within the Nationwide Guard to 6 years in a jail colony after convicting him of shopping for gear unable to guard the bridge which hyperlinks southern Russia to Crimea, the TASS state information company reported.
TASS mentioned that Colonel Sergei Volkov had bought two radar-based air defence methods for 395 million roubles ($4.5 million) which had been meant to have the ability to carry down Ukrainian assault drones by suppressing their sign.
A army courtroom in Moscow had decided that the gear – which was additionally meant to guard a fuel pipeline operating from southern Russia to Crimea – wanted modernising and upgrading to be efficient and had discovered Volkov responsible of abusing his place, it mentioned.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a transfer that Kyiv and the West don’t recognise and say was unlawful.
Volkov was reported to disclaim his guilt, saying he had acted throughout the legislation, and that the gear was in truth meant to guard Nationwide Guard troops in varied areas.
The Kommersant newspaper reported that Volkov’s oversight had left the bridge being “inside vary of (Ukrainian) hearth.”
The street and rail bridge was a flagship mission for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who opened it to street site visitors to a lot fanfare by driving a truck throughout it in 2018.
After Putin despatched tens of 1000’s of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the bridge turned a chief goal for the Ukrainian army and particular providers.
It was severely broken in October 2022 by an enormous explosion.
Russian officers mentioned the blast was attributable to a lorry that exploded whereas driving over the bridge, killing three folks. Just a few months later, in July 2023, Ukrainian safety providers claimed duty for the explosion.
($1 = 87.6560 roubles)
(Reporting by Reuters; Enhancing by Andrew Osborn)
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