Russian customs officials detained a train conductor who tried to smuggle equipment for a supersonic strategic bomber across the border with Ukraine, the customs service said Wednesday.

Customs officers doing a check in western Russia's Bryansk customs check point found a box in the conductor's train compartment on the train going from Moscow to Ukraine's Odessa.

"According to the train conductor, the box contained a car battery charger which was given to him by an unknown man who asked to take it to a friend in Kiev," customs spokeswoman Faina Svedovaya told Interfax.

However, a weapons expert concluced that the device was a "combined airspeed indicator used on military aircraft Tu-22M and Tu-160," she said.

Both are Soviet-designed supersonic bombers that are presently used in the Russian and Ukrainian military.

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