Crimea Bridge: The Crucial Supply Route for Russian Forces in Ukraine

REUTERS/Alexey Pavlishak/File photo On July 17, Reuters reported that traffic on the Crimea Bridge, which links Russia and the Crimean peninsula, was stopped due to an "emergency situation." The Russian-backed head of Crimea's administration, Sergei Aksyonov, stated that explosions were heard on the bridge, with Russian military bloggers reporting two strikes.

The bridge is a crucial supply route for Russian forces in Ukraine.

The Crimea Bridge is a 19-km (12-mile) structure that spans the Kerch Strait and connects the transport network of Russia with the Crimean peninsula.

The bridge consists of a separate roadway and railway, both supported by concrete stilts, which give way to a wider span held by steel arches at the point where ships pass between the Black Sea and the smaller Azov Sea.

The bridge was built by a firm belonging to Arkady Rotenberg, a close ally and former judo partner of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The bridge is crucial for the supply of fuel, food, and other products to Crimea, where the port of Sevastopol is the historic home base of Russia's Black Sea Fleet.

It has also become a major supply route for Russian forces after Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, sending forces from Crimea to seize most of southern Ukraine's Kherson region and some of the adjoining Zaporizhzhia province.

In October 2022, the bridge was damaged in a powerful blast, with Russian officials saying the explosion was caused by a truck that blew up while crossing the bridge, killing three people.

Putin branded the explosion a "terrorist attack" orchestrated by Ukrainian security services and ordered a wave of retaliatory strikes on Ukrainian cities including the capital, Kyiv.

In December 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy claimed that his country was responsible for the October blast, listing the bridge as one of his army's "successes" in 2022.