The Moscow City Court on Wednesday rejected a request from the Investigative Committee to extend the arrest of Andrei Merkuryev, Alexander Zaitsev, Mikhail Ryumin and Sergei Kanurin, the business daily Kommersant reported. The four had been charged with carrying out a terrorist attack and transporting explosives as part of an organized group.
The Investigative Committee concluded its investigation and sent the case to the Prosecutor General's Office, but First Deputy Prosecutor General Anatoly Razinkin declined to approve the indictment. According to his findings, investigators were unable to find direct evidence of the defendants' guilt, and the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to send the case to trial.
The Investigative Committee disagreed with the decision and appealed it. According to Kommersant, the investigation intends to appeal to Prosecutor General Alexander Gutsan.
According to the investigation's account, the drivers belonged to a group created by Ukrainian natives Artyom and Yekaterina Timofeyev, who have been placed on a wanted list, and were recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia. Some of the drivers were employed by a sole proprietorship registered in Artyom Timofeyev's name, while he approached the others, the Investigative Committee claims, as an ordinary cargo customer.
The defendants themselves denied guilt. They said they had called law enforcement themselves after drones flew out of their trucks and tried to shoot them down. Ukraine has said the drivers were unaware of the drones hidden in the vehicles.
Operation Spiderweb took place on June 1. The SBU attacked military airfields in four Russian regions using drones. The drones had been hidden in prefabricated frame houses transported by five long-haul drivers. The targets of the attack were the Olenya airfield in the Murmansk region, Belaya in the Irkutsk region, Dyagilevo in the Ryazan region and Ivanovo-Severny in the Ivanovo region.
One of the drivers, 62-year-old Vasily Pytikov, died in an explosion during the operation. The case against him was closed earlier this year.
Ukraine officially reports 41 aircraft destroyed, including Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers and Tu-22M3 bombers. Western sources estimate the losses at 10 to 12 aircraft. OSINT analysts cite figures ranging from 12 to 23 aircraft, while sources for The New York Times in U.S. and European intelligence services believe up to 20 Russian strategic aircraft were destroyed or seriously damaged.