Occupier's Crimean bridge

The beginning of the Crimean (Kerch) bridge's operating

On May 15, 2018, the road part of the bridge was opened for cars, and since October - for trucks. The railway bridge was opened for passenger trains on December 23, 2019, and for freight trains on June 30, 2020.

Crimea is Ukraine

On April 21, 2022, the Secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said that Ukraine's Armed Forces can destroy the Crimean bridge, as it is not only built illegally, but is also used by the Russian side to import ammunition reinforcements for the Russian military, which invaded the territory of Ukraine.

On August 18, 2022, explosions rang out near the Crimean bridge. The occupying authorities of Crimea declared that "there is no threat to the bridge". After that, the pro-Kremlin media announced that the Russians shot down a "Ukrainian drone" in the area of ​​the bridge. At the same time, an air raid alert was announced in Kerch.

Explosions and fire on the Crimean (Kerch) bridge

On October 8, 2022, an explosion rang out on the railway branch of the Crimean bridge. The occupation authorities of Crimea stated that the incident occurred due to the explosion of a fuel tank in the tail of a freight train.

After some time, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee of the Russian Federation reported that someone blew up a truck on the road part of the bridge. As a result of this detonation, 7 fuel tanks of the train, which was on the bridge at that time, caught fire. After the explosion, the Crimean bridge suffered significant damage.

The advisor to the head of the President's Office, Mykhailo Podolyak, spoke on this topic as follows: “Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, and everything belonging to the Russian occupation must be expelled.”

UK intelligence reported that the damage to the bridge would not allow it to be repaired until at least September 2023.

On November 4, 2022, Ukrposhta, Ukraine's designated postal operator, issued a new stamp called “Crimean bridge encore!”

“The Crimean bridge will be destroyed when we return Crimea,” Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, said. 

Photo: Gettyimages