That’s a nice bridge you got there.
Sure would be a shame if something happened to it.
Kerch Strait Bridge
"They previously had 10 to 14 ships and boats at sea at the same time to guard the bridge, and now there are zero. They have to somehow solve this problem," said Ukrainian Navy spokesperson Captain 3rd Rank Dmytro Pletenchuk in an interview with Radio NV on 12 June 2024. "They are trying to limit maneuverability as much as possible, narrowing the passage to better control this part of the sea and protect the bridge," Pletenchuk said. "So they are constructing passive barriers and engineering structures using barges with booms. The goal is to counteract." British intelligence had reported that Russia had placed eight barges near the southern side of the Crimean bridge to protect it from Ukrainian drone attacks.
Two unmanned surface vehicles attacked the Russian-built bridge linking the annexed Crimean Peninsula to Russia’s Krasnodar region, according to the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee. "At 3:05 [6:05 GMT] two Ukrainian unmanned surface vehicles carried out an attack on the Crimean Bridge. As a result of the terrorist attack, the road part of the Crimean Bridge was damaged, while two adults were killed and one child was injured," the statement said. A family car passing across the targeted span crashed as a result, killing Aleksey Kulik, 40, and his wife Natalya, 36. Their daughter Angelina, 14, was airlifted to Krasnodar with serious injuries. A kamikaze boat was launched from a ship in the "grain corridor", and reconnaissance drones showed it a safe path, according to Andriy Klintsevich, head of the Center for the Study of Military and Political Conflicts of the Russian Federation.
"There will be a response from Russia to the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. The Ministry of Defense is preparing relevant proposals. What happened was another terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime, which had no logic from a military point of view," Putin said. This day marked the 9th anniversary of the downing of flight MH17 by members of the 2nd Battalion of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade of the Russian Federation. All 298 people on board the aircraft died, among them 198 Dutch citizens.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Husnullin said at a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin that one span of the road part of the Crimean Bridge was completely destroyed and cannot be restored. The Deputy Prime Minister of Russia added that the other span from the other side of the bridge in the direction of occupied Kerch is "damaged, but in general it is on the support". The Ministry of Transport of Russia says that only the road surface is damaged, and the structures of the spans remain on their supports and are not damaged. The Russian Federation assures that rail traffic has already started over the bridge, and motorists are advised to take a detour.
The bridge connecting Crimea and Russia carries heavy significance for Moscow, both logistically and psychologically, as a key artery for military and civilian supplies and as an assertion of Kremlin control of the peninsula it illegally annexed in 2014. The attack on the bridge before dawn left a span of the roadway hanging perilously. The damage initially appeared to be less severe than what was caused by an assault in October, but it highlighted the bridge’s vulnerability. If the bridge was seriously damaged it would significantly impact Russian supply lines. Russia would only have one ground supply line – the coastal highway on the Sea of Azov – to sustain (or evacuate) its tens of thousands of troops in occupied Kherson & Crimea.
A source in Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) told CNN this attack was a joint operation of the SBU and Ukraine’s naval forces. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not received authorization to speak on the record. a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military intelligence department, Andrei Yusov, commented on the Crimean Bridge incident, quoting the agency's head, Kirill Budanov, who stated that "this structure is unnecessary".
The announcement came hours after Moscow-installed officials said traffic along the bridge had been halted and media in Ukraine reported explosions along the overpass. The Russian TASS news agency said train traffic on the bridge may be changed because of the “emergency situation” there, while the RIA state news agency said that police officers were warning drivers that the ferry service in the area was not working either.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia has no illusions on the possible involvement of the West in the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge. "We know very well how deep the coordination of the Kiev regime and Washington and a number of European capitals is, as well as the North Atlantic Alliance. We know perfectly well how much information comes from the North Atlantic Alliance, from Washington to Kiev on a permanent basis, so we have no illusions here," Peskov told a briefing.
Part of the bridge for road traffic is not as important as part for railway traffic. The main flow of goods goes by rail. Russian sources claimed that no pillars were damaged, but one of the inner segments of the bridge has partially collapsed, requiring repairs that will probably take weeks. Pictures showed an intact pillar and another seemingly damaged / partly missing pillar. It appeared that the bridge failed along an expansion joint leading to the other carriageway where there is a large gap. Seemingly there was a blast of significant magnitude under the bridge to raise the section, causing a linear fair along the joint and partially destroying the support. That bridge section will not be operational until later in the year. While the damage to the road bridge is visibly less extensive than the October 2022 truck-bomb attack, this attack could have a bigger impact on road traffic. Last time they could reopen one lane to limited traffic.
In the Russian narrative the Kerch bridge strike in Crimea is called terrorism, as civilians died in the explosion. In reality, the bridge is an absolutely legitimate and important military target, which the Ukrainians must attack in order to weaken the Russian logistics.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken commented on the explosion on the Crimean bridge and said that "Ukraine itself decides how to wage this war." He said this during a speech at the US State Department 17 July 2023. "Regarding the Crimean bridge. We are monitoring the situation. I cannot say anything specific about it, only a general position. Ukraine decides for itself how to wage this war and defend its territory, its people and its freedom," he said.
The attack on the Crimea bridge was followed by Russia suspending, for a second time, a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry. The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Some analysts don't foresee a lasting rise in the cost of commodities like wheat because there’s enough grain in the world to go around. But many countries are already struggling with high local food prices, which are helping fuel hunger.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had already stopped using the bridge to move military cargo. The attack on the Crimean Bridge did not appear to have disrupted Russian military supply routes in Ukraine, according to the White House. During a press briefing on Monday, the US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, John Kirby, said that officials in Washington “haven’t seen any impact of the strike on the bridge to Russia’s defensive posture and their military capabilities in Crimea or in Southern Ukraine.” He noted that Russian forces continued to actively engage the Ukrainian military, “trying to push back elements of the Ukrainian counteroffensive.”
According to Kirby, while it is still too early to predict if and how the attack will affect Moscow’s military capabilities in the long run, it still has “many, many, many other ways of providing logistics and sustainment to their troops in Ukraine.” He said “So, my hunch would be that this won’t have a dramatic effect on – on them”.
Traffic across the Crimean Bridge resumed in the early hours of 18 July 2023, less than a day after an attack by Ukrainian drones damaged a section of the vehicle span. Cars were alternating in the use of the right-most lane between Taman and Kerch, Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said on his Telegram channel shortly after midnight local time. Crews from the road management company Rosavtodor and other emergency workers quickly responded to Monday’s attack and carried out emergency repairs on the damaged spans, Khusnullin said.
Maxar's WorldView-2 commercial satellite imaged the Crimean Bridge twice in the past month, the company said on 17 July 2023. The company published satellite images of the area dated June 20 and July 12. Maxar owns and operates a group of satellites that enables it to collect detailed images from space, including photos of the conflict in Ukraine. The company’s technology is used for geospatial intelligence and forms the backbone of Google Maps.
Attack 09 July 2023
Ukraine's authorities made an unsuccessful attempt to hit targets on Russian territory with S-200 anti-aircraft missiles earlier in the month, with the Russian Defense Ministry thwarting the attack. "On July 9 this year, the Kiev regime made an unsuccessful attempt to strike targets in the Crimea, Rostov and Kaluga regions with S-200 anti-aircraft missiles converted into a strike version in order to destroy ground targets," the ministry said in a statement. Ukraine's military persisted with more similar attacks later in the month. On the morning of July 16, the regime being used by NATO and its allies to fuel the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine resorted to use of drones. The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed later that its forces had successfully repelled an attempted attack on targets in Crimea and Sevastopol. Two surface drones were also destroyed in the outer roadstead, the Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said on 16 July 2023.
Attack 08 October 2022
On 08 October 2022, the landmark Crimean Bridge connecting the peninsula to Russia's mainland was damaged as a result of a Ukrainian attack, which, Moscow believed, was carried out by the Ukrainian special services. Russia's National Antiterrorism Committee (NAC) said that a truck was blown up on the Crimean Bridge, which caused seven fuel tanks of a freight train to catch fire and two car spans to partially collapse. According to preliminary data from the Russian Investigative Committee, at least three people died as a result of the explosion on the Crimean Bridge.
The Kerch Strait ferry line, which connects the Crimean peninsula and Russia's Krasnodar region, has resumed its operation, with the first ferry already en route for cargo loading, and three others in line to depart, the Russian Transport Ministry told Sputnik. "The transport companies are resuming the operation of the Kerch Strait ferry line. The coastal infrastructure is ready for these purposes. As of 8:30 a.m. local time [05:30 GMT], the first ferry departed to the terminal for loading, and three more ferries of different shipowners are preparing to depart to the crossing," the ministry said.
Two senior Ukrainian officials told the New York Times on 10 October 2022 that Ukrainian intelligence were behind the attack on the bridge, one of them grading the success of the attack as “excellent” and saying that the operation “showed the failure of the Russian system to guarantee the security even of the most significant and sacred targets.” Ukrainian officials also publicly gloated over the act of terror, with presidential advisor Mikhail Podolyak saying the bridge attack was only “the beginning” and that “everything illegal must be destroyed” and “everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine.” President Vladimir Zelensky said in a sarcasm-laden address to the nation “Today was not a bad day and mostly sunny on our state’s territory. Unfortunately, it was cloudy in Crimea. Although it was also warm”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukrainian special services had authorized and performed the explosion on the Crimean Bridge, which he stressed is a terrorist act aimed at destroying Russia's critical infrastructure. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) stated that the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's Main Intelligence Directorate was behind the attack on the Crimean Bridge. Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to harshly respond to such crimes. In particular, on October 10, Russia launched regular strikes using precision-guided weapons against Ukrainian infrastructure, with the strikes targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure and communications posts across the country.
The FSB said that “the explosive device was camouflaged in rolls with a construction polyethylene film and was shipped from the [Ukrainian] seaport of Odessa to Bulgaria's Ruse in early August”. According to the FSB, control over the movement of cargo along the entire route and contacts with participants in the criminal scheme were carried out by an Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate employee who presented himself as Ivan Ivanovich. “Five citizens of Russia, as well as three citizens of Ukraine and Armenia, who participated in the preparation of the crime, have been detained”, according to the statement.
Putin visited the Crimean bridge on 05 December 2022 and stressed the importance of a land road connecting Crimea with the rest of Russia amid continued threats from Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. The head of state, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, drove a car across the bridge, including the lane repaired after Ukraine's attack in October.
Background
Kerch Strait Bridge is intended to create a land connection between Crimea and Krasnodar region which, in light of Ukraine’s blockade of Crimea, is crucial for supplies from Russia. Kyiv and Moscow signed an agreement in 2013 to build a bridge that would connect the two states through the Kerch Strait, but Ukraine left it after the Crimean occupation. Russia built this bridge to the occupied Ukrainian Crimea itself, without the consent of Ukraine.
Following the seizure of Crimea by Russia in 2014, the issue of transport communications with the peninsula emerged. Logistics was the main problem of the business and the population of Crimea. The traditional approach - the use of ferries, has exhausted itself and today the Crimea-Caucasus ferry is operating at the limit of its capacity. Almost immediately after the words of the President of Russia V.V. Putin’s need to build a ferry across the Kerch Strait has again resumed controversy between “lyricists and physicists” about what kind of ferry Crimea needs - in the form of a bridge or tunnel. And here again "every sandpiper praises its swamp". Bridgers defend the idea of a bridge - beautifully, aesthetically, effectively, spectacularly, inexpensively (in their opinion), and the tunnellers objected to them and proposed their option, the tunnel, as the most reliable, protected and durable of artificial structures.
One of the main problems of the Crimean peninsula - energy supply - was resolved. On 27 December 2016, in a video conference mode, Vladimir Putin launched the gas supply to the Crimea from mainland Russia. This became possible after the connection of the gas transmission system of the peninsula to the Russian main gas pipelines. For the construction of a new gas pipeline from the Krasnodar Territory to the Crimea, 200 kilometers of high-quality pipes were purchased. The new gas pipeline to supply the Crimea is estimated at 20 billion rubles. 14.3 billion of this amount - the cost of pipes, which will pass through the bottom of the Kerch Strait, and further along the Crimean peninsula through Simferopol to Sevastopol. Its diameter at different sites will be from 500 to 700 mm. The pipe will allow pumping up to 4 billion cubic meters. meters of gas per year when the needs of the Crimea in 2 billion.
The Crimea Bridge [krymskij most] across the Kerch Strait connects the peninsula and the Krasnodar Territory. Its total length is 19 kilometers, which will make it the longest bridge in Russia. Ukrainian authorities repeatedly opposed the Russian infrastructure project citing ecological concerns and alleged transformation of the Azov Sea into the Black Sea Gulf. The investment in the project amounts to 200 billion rubles ($3.47 billion).
The construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait began in August 2014, when construction teams began carrying out earthworks in the area of approaches to the future bridge. The project documentation for the construction of a double-track railway with a length of about 42 kilometers had been prepared and passed state examination. The construction project of a forty-kilometer highway, which would go directly to the bridge across the strait, had also been approved. The company Railways had already begun work on laying new paths. The Russian Federal Road Agency authorized the construction of the 19-kilometer (11.8-mile) bridge in February 2016.
Vladimir Putin stressed that the bridge must meet certain requirements. "We have agreed that this will be a full bridge, a full transition, including a railway one. And he, too, must be complete in the sense that trains must be able to go both ways at the same time,” the president reminded the minister. The latter assured that the project envisages the construction of a two-way electrified road, which in its carrying capacity will be comparable to the Trans-Siberian Railway.
The response to the long awaited completion of the road bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to mainland Russia was predictable, prompting a storm of angry comments from Kiev and Washington, and jubilation and relief among Crimea's residents and Russia as a whole. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called the bridge's construction "illegal," and declared that the Russian "occupiers" would "necessarily need the bridge when they will urgently leave our Crimea."
The undisputed highlight of the opening ceremony 16 May 2018 was President Vladimir Putin's decision to jump into a KAMAZ dump truck and drive across the 19 km bridge with a column of trucks and construction machinery along with the bridge's builders. The future main road of the Crimea will be four-lane, its total length will be 275.5 km (in the Republic of Crimea - 237.5 km). “Tavrida” will link Kerch, Simferopol and Sevastopol with one thread. The company “VAD” from St. Petersburg was selected as a contractor for the construction of the highway and auto approaches to the Crimean bridge. The cost of the route should not exceed 139 billion rubles. The construction of a two-lane road from Kerch to Simferopol (the first to fourth stages) is scheduled for completion by December 2018. All four lanes of the new Tavrida highway will be put into operation on the territory of the Republic of Crimea in 2020.
Heather Nauert, US State Department Spokesperson, said May 15, 2018 "The United States condemns Russia’s construction and partial opening of the Kerch Strait Bridge between Russia and occupied Crimea, which was done without the permission of the government of Ukraine. Crimea is part of Ukraine. Russia’s construction of the bridge serves as a reminder of Russia’s ongoing willingness to flout international law. The bridge represents not only an attempt by Russia to solidify its unlawful seizure and its occupation of Crimea, but also impedes navigation by limiting the size of ships that can transit the Kerch Strait, the only path to reach Ukraine’s territorial waters in the Sea of Azov. We call on Russia not to impede this shipping."
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