Ukraine threatens to blow up Russia’s strategic Crimea bridge

Ukraine has threatened to launch an airstrike on Russia’s £2.7 billion bridge to Crimea, the largest structure of its kind in Europe and of strategic importance to the Putin regime.

The bridge, which links southern Russia to the annexed peninsula, was opened by Vladimir Putin in 2018 to condemnation from the West.

Oleksiy Danilov, chairman of the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council, said Russia has been using the 12-mile (19-kilometre) bridge spanning the Strait of Kerch to send troops and weapons from Russia into Crimea and then into southern Ukraine.

“It would be good if our partners could provide us with something that we could use to reach (the bridge),” he told the NV radio station. “It would solve a lot of issues for us.”

Mr Putin's spokesman on Thursday described Mr Danilov’s remarks as “nothing short of an announcement of an upcoming terrorist attack.”

“This is unacceptable,” Dmirty Peskov said.

“Clearly, we see signs of what should receive a legal assessment and entail the appropriate penalty.”

Mr Peskov also said the bridge, which links southern Russia to Crimea, is under heavy guard that should prevent possible attacks.

Bridge opened in 2018

Ukraine blocked shipments of supplies via its territory to Crimea after Russia annexed the peninsula in 2014. Crimea had to rely on air and ferry transportation before the bridge was inaugurated in 2018.

Putin personally opened traffic over the Strait of Kerch by driving a truck across the bridge.

The project was so expensive that several Russian regions complained they had to put off pressing infrastructure upgrades after funds were diverted.

The bridge was built by a construction company owned by Arkady Rotenberg, a childhood friend of Putin.

Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT and a chief Kremlin propagandist, wrote the screenplay for a critically panned 2018 rom-com called “Crimea Bridge” in the wake of its opening.

22.04.2022 11:09