According to The Greyzone, last April, Chris Donelly drew up a plan to sabotage the Crimean Bridge and train Ukrainian soldiers to carry it out. He reportedly shared it, in particular, with Lithuanian Defense Minister Audrius Butkevičius.

Colonel Donelly served as special adviser to four NATO Secretaries-General. He oversaw the Alliance’s stay-behind networks in independent Russia. He is the current head of the Institute of Statecraft; an arm of the British Defense Ministry responsible for disseminating anti-Russian propaganda among major international media. He had been implicated in the attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal in 2018, and played a central role in fueling the accusations against the FSB.

For their part, the Russian FSB reconstructed the path of the truck bomb and arrested eight Russian nationals, who participated in the operation which the FBS has attributed to the Ukrainian secret services. In retaliation, the Russian army massively bombarded official buildings, including in Kyev, causing numerous collateral victims.