“There will be an answer to the blowing up of the Crimean bridge”

On Monday evening, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of regions adjacent to the Crimean Bridge and the Ministry of Transport. He called the attack on the Crimean bridge a terrorist attack and promised that Russia would respond to it, and specified that the Ministry of Defense was already preparing proposals.

Putin called the attack on the Crimean bridge not only cruel, but also senseless from a military point of view, saying that the bridge has long been out of use for military transport.

Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Marat Khusnullin, who supervises Crimea issues, said that one of the spans of the bridge was completely destroyed and could not be restored, another one was damaged. The supports were almost undamaged. He promised that one of the pillars, which requires strengthening, will be repaired by midnight on Monday, after which it will be possible to start automobile traffic on the bridge in reverse mode for passenger cars.

Also, according to him, it is planned to build a temporary bridge on a site about 250 meters long. Meanwhile, motor vehicle owners are offered an alternative route through the “new regions” – that’s how he designated the Ukrainian regions under the control of Russian troops.

Sergey Aksyonov, the head of the annexed Crimea appointed by Russia, said that there is a ferry crossing between the Krasnodar region and Crimea, capable of transporting 450 cars per day. “The priority is cargoes of the Ministry of Defense,” he clarified. It is not clear how this is compatible with the president’s statement that the Crimean bridge is not used for military transport. According to Aksyonov, the queue for trucks can last about two days.

The Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, Veniamin Kondratiev, said that at the entrances to the bridge, intercepting parking lots with food stations and bio-toilets, capable of accommodating up to four thousand cars, have been arranged.

Kondratiev asked the Ministry of Transport (its head Vitaly Saveliev also took part in the meeting) to ensure the accelerated return to Crimea of ​​750 cars whose owners and passengers are not vacationers, but residents of Crimea who need to get home.

• The Krymsky (Kerchensky) bridge connecting the Krasnodar region with Crimea annexed by Russia was damaged on the night of July 17 as a result of an attack by two unmanned surface vehicles. Ukrainian media sources reported that the attack was coordinated by the Ukrainian army and the country’s Security Service. As a result of the attack, one span of the Krymsky bridge came off its support, and another was damaged.