Ukraine
Blowing the Crimean Bridge — No Longer a Bridge Too Far?
With imminent delivery of the Naval Strike Missile, Ukraine might have a realistic prospect of blowing this key Putin prestige link between Russia and Crimea
Yes, the Ukrainian official Telegram channel is starting to hint at destruction of the Crimean bridge. So what’s new — bridges get blown every day in war don’t they?
A special bridge
But this is a special bridge, a bridge between Russia and the Crimea, a bridge Putin built after he annexed Crimea in 2014.
It’s called the Kerch Bridge and carries road and rail traffic (actually on two parallel bridges) across the Kerch Strait which joins the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
There had been many plans over the years for a bridge, but after Putin annexed the Crimea in 2014 it was built relatively quickly in 4 years by the company run by Arkady Rotenburg, a crony of Putin’s. Now he must surely be concerned about the loyalty of many of his cronies, having lost them their fortunes in short order.
Maybe Putin thinks the concrete is suspect so he’s been focused on the land bridge through Mariupol and finally opened that up…
