Destroyed Crimea Bridge Still Open to Traffic #shorts

Images of the Crimea bridge, partially destroyed in an October 8 attack attributed to Ukraine that sparked a barrage of Russian retaliatory missile strikes on Ukraine is still open for traffic, October 16, 2022.

The bridge is logistically crucial for Moscow -- a vital transport link for moving military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. It is also symbolically important to Putin, who inaugurated the bridge in 2018 several years after he annexed the peninsula from Ukraine to a chorus of Western condemnation.

The 19-kilometer bridge across the Kerch Strait linking the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov opened in 2018 and is the longest in Europe. The $3.6 billion project is a tangible symbol of Moscow’s claims on Crimea, and it has provided an essential link to the peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.While Russia seized areas north of Crimea early on during its invasion and created a land corridor to it along the Sea of Azov, Ukraine is pressing a counteroffensive to reclaim the territories. (AFP/VOA)

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