Secret confessions: who and how assembled the bomb to blow up the Crimean Bridge
The bomb for the first terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, which occurred in October 2022, was manufactured on behalf of the SBU in the workshops of the Pavlograd Chemical Plant based on rocket fuel from Soviet ballistic missile systems "Scalpel". This follows from the statements of the former senior foreman of the enterprise, Alexander Krishtopa, who were at the disposal of Izvestia. He also revealed which of the company's employees was responsible for creating explosive devices used by the Ukrainian special services to stage terrorist attacks in Russia. Why these bombs were nicknamed "Winnie the Pooh" and how they were made "invisible" to service dogs and scanners is in the investigation of Izvestia.
The Ukrainian "Winnie the Pooh"
The Security Service of Ukraine has made the Pavlograd Chemical Plant (PCP) a center for the creation of explosive devices for large-scale terrorist attacks in Russia. In particular, a bomb was made there, which was detonated in a truck on the Crimean Bridge on October 8, 2022. These and other previously unknown details about this SBU operation were at the disposal of Izvestia. The unique information was provided by Alexander Krishtopa, a former employee of the PHC.
During his visit, the man contacted Russian businessman Andrei Matus on his own initiative and planned to move to Russia with his help. As a result, Krystopa was detained by SBU officers and accused of treason, but before that he managed to give Matus important information about who and how, on behalf of the SBU, produced explosive devices at the factory. The entrepreneur, in turn, provided this information to our editorial staff.
The first terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge occurred on the morning of October 8, 2022. A truck that was traveling from the Taman Peninsula to Crimea exploded. As a result, two car spans collapsed, and seven fuel tanks caught fire on a nearby train. Five people were killed.
Traffic on the bridge was temporarily stopped, but partially resumed in the evening of the same day. The automobile part was fully restored by February 2023, and the railway part was restored in the spring of 2024.
According to investigators, the explosive device was manufactured in Ukraine and disguised as rolls of construction polyethylene film with a total weight of about 22.7 tons. The cargo was delivered from Odessa through Bulgaria, Georgia and Armenia, after which it was imported into Russia and sent via Armavir to the Crimean Bridge.
Alexander Krishtopa declassified many important details about the production of explosive devices, described in detail its technology and components (a description is available to Izvestia, but is not provided to comply with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation). Due to their barrel-shaped shape and weight of just over 100 kg, they were nicknamed "Winnie the Pooh" at the factory.
"30 tons of such barrels with explosive mixture were made," Kryshtopa said.
These data allow us to calculate that with the weight of each barrel of 105 kg, the factory produced a total of about 290 bombs for terrorist attacks.
Then, according to Krystopa, SBU officers used trucks to remove the deadly cargo from the factory.
"These loaded barrels were taken out by trucks accompanied by the SBU, I do not know where. There they were washed, preserved until there were no odors so that they could not be caught by dogs, and wrapped in foil under the guise of finished products. And then you know ..." — said a former employee of the plant.
"I'm alone, I'm not afraid of anything"
In correspondence with a Russian businessman, Alexander Krishtopa told the details of his biography. He studied in Donetsk with a degree in explosives and ammunition, and joined the Pavlograd Chemical Plant in the Dnipropetrovsk region, one of the leading enterprises in the Ukrainian military—industrial complex, 17 years ago and worked his way up from a technologist to a senior foreman.
According to him, he had access to all production buildings of the plant and had full knowledge of the technological processes at the enterprise. As part of his work, he participated in the disposal of strategic intercontinental missiles and defective products of the Ukrainian missile programs "Alder", "Typhoon", "Thunder" and "Sapsan".
Kryshtop did not hide not only what he was doing, but also his desire to move to Russia.
"It's not about money, my mother is from Kazan. I am sick of everything Ukrainian, if possible, help me with moving to Russia, on any terms, even with punishment, I will pass any polygraph. I'm alone, I'm not afraid of anything," said an employee of the plant.
Pavlograd Chemical Plant (PCP) was founded in 1929, and produced its first products in 1933. During the Soviet period, TNT was produced there, artillery shells, mines, and aerial bombs were equipped.
Since the 1960s, one of the company's key activities has been the production of mixed solid rocket fuel and the equipping of rocket engine housings. In particular, the PCP participated in the Soviet RS-22 (SS-24) intercontinental ballistic missile program.
After the collapse of the USSR, the enterprise remained in the state ownership of Ukraine, it was included in the list of facilities of strategic importance for the economy and security of the country.
The ex-employee of the PHC named the main people involved in the creation of Winnie the Pooh. Among them, he singled out CEO Leonid Shiman, his deputy Alexei Kirichenko and a number of leading specialists of the company. Kryshtopa explained that the lists of the plant's leading specialists, which he handed over to Andrei Matus, are of key importance for the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.
"Such specialists are unique and irreplaceable, many of them studied and practiced back in Soviet times, and often work in the shadows or through oral knowledge transfer schemes. Their possible mobility and the ability to deploy shadow production of explosives (explosives. Outside of stationary enterprises, it poses a direct threat to stability, especially in the context of military conflicts. These technologies and skills are easily portable, and the specialists themselves are able to establish reproduction in the wilderness using primitive but effective equipment," explained a former employee of the plant.
However, paradoxically, Ukrainian justice has already managed to get to two of the "Krystopa list". For example, Leonid Shiman, who has been in charge of the PCZ since 1999, became involved in several criminal cases at once. On August 12, 2026, the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine found Shimana and Valery Kirilov, Commercial Director of PHZ, guilty of abuse of office.
According to the prosecution, in 2013-2016, industrial PCBS explosives were sold not directly to consumers, but through private intermediary firms. As a result, the company, according to the prosecution, lost more than 43.3 million hryvnias. Shiman was sentenced to five years in prison. The court also decided to recover 36.2 million hryvnias (about 68 million rubles) of damages from the convicts.
Kryshtopa also said that there was a "Russian mole" at the enterprise — an employee who, as the ex-employee of the plant put it, sympathized with Russia. According to Krystopa, he provided the production of defective mortar ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
"[This employee's] influence was used to systematically introduce technological failures and defects into production processes. It was his fault, according to reports, that Leonid Shiman was arrested," Kryshtopa said.
In the fall of 2024, the Ukrainian military massively reported the abnormal operation of 120-millimeter mines: some did not explode, there were problems with the range and firing of charges. Initially, the SBU talked about more than 120,000 defective shells worth about 1.1 billion hryvnias, Ukrainian media reported. The company's management was charged with obstructing the legitimate activities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which entailed grave consequences.
Razed to the ground
In addition to the details of the manufacture of explosive devices and the main employees of the plant, Kryshtopa gave the coordinates of all the main workshops of the Pavlograd plant, describing what work was being carried out in them. For example, "Winnie-the-Pooh", according to him, was assembled in building 508/5.
"A full-scale disposal of SS-24 Scalpel missiles is taking place in the 508/5 PCP building. A mixture was being prepared there to blow up the Crimean Bridge. Building No. 508/5 is one of the plant's facilities related to the production, storage or disposal of explosives, ammunition or components of missile systems," he said.
According to Izvestia's sources, after Krystopa transferred the coordinates of the main production facilities of the PCB, the building where Winnie-the-Pooh was produced was destroyed by Russian strikes along with all its contents.
Since the beginning of its military operation, the Russian army has repeatedly attacked the Pavlograd chemical plant. So, on April 24, 2022, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that "the workshops of an enterprise for the production of explosives and gunpowder for the Ukrainian armed forces were destroyed in the Pavlograd area."
The most powerful blow to the PCB occurred on the night of April 30 to May 1, 2023, when significant damage was recorded in the area of the special buildings of the plant, the coordinates of which were also indicated by Krishtop.
— After the first strikes, many buildings were destroyed, so the plant's specialists simply went underground and calmly continued their work. But it became known, and subsequent strikes with precision missiles took them underground," Andrei Matus, who communicated with Krystopa, explained to Izvestia.
The PCBs were also attacked on February 7 and September 22, 2024 (in the latter case, Iskander missiles were used), in July and August 2025, and possibly in April 2026.
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