UPDATE - 8 suspects detained over Crimea bridge blast: Russia's security service

UPDATES WITH UKRAINE'S DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER'S STATEMENT AND ABBREVIATIONS; REVISIONS THROUGHOUT; REVISES HEADLINE, DECK

By Merve Berker

ANKARA (AA) - Eight out of 12 suspects wanted over the weekend attack on the Crimea bridge have been taken into custody, the Russian security service said on Wednesday.

Kyrylo Budanov, the Ukrainian military intelligence chief, is believed to be the mastermind behind the attack, the Federal Security Service (FSB) reported.

The explosives used in the attack were sent from the Ukrainian port city of Odesa through Bulgaria, Georgia, and Armenia, and hidden in rolls of camera, said the FSB.

But Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine's Interior Ministry, dismissed Russia's investigation of the blast as “nonsense.”

"The whole activity of the FSB and the Investigative Committee is nonsense. These are fake structures that serve the (Vladimir) Putin regime, so we will definitely not comment on their next statements," he told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilned.

President Putin has accused Ukrainian intelligence of carrying out what he called a "terrorist attack" last Saturday on the Kerch Bridge, a key supply route Russia built after it illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. The blast came amid the eighth month of Russia's war on Ukraine.

It was followed on Monday by a wave of Russian airstrikes on Ukrainian cities, drawing widespread condemnation from the international community.