Crimea Bridge - Europe's tallest
The 19km-long bridge connecting mainland Russia and Crimea worth $3.7 billion is Moscow's only direct road to Crimea.
Before the Kerch Bridge, all cars passed through the Kerch Strait by ferry or through Ukraine. Traffic through the ferry is often interrupted due to bad weather.
Kerch Bridge is a road-rail bridge across the Kerch Strait between the Kerch Peninsula of Crimea and the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai.
The project includes a 2-lane railway line with the capacity to travel 47 daily trains and a 4-lane highway with a speed of 120 km/h with the capacity to travel 40,000 daily vehicles according to TASS.
RIA Novosti said that the road and railway route connecting the Crimean peninsula and the Russian mainland can receive 40,000 cars per day, transferring about 14 million passengers and 13 million tons of goods per year.
In 2018, when the Kerch Bridge was inaugurated, Mr. Putin chaired the event, personally driving a truck across the route connecting Russia and Crimea.
The Russian president praised this as a remarkable achievement, making the legendary Crimean and Sevastopol stronger and bringing us closer together.
Russian state media also praised Kerch Bridge as "the construction of the century". According to Russian state news agencies, the bridge was completed six months ahead of schedule.
The construction of the Kerch Bridge began in February 2016. Earlier that year, the US Treasury Department imposed a series of sanctions on seven companies involved in the bridge construction. The construction is led by Arkady Rotenberg's Stroygazmontazh company.
The 19km-long Kerch Bridge across the Kerch Strait is currently the longest bridge in Europe. The span of Kerch Bridge is larger than vasco da Gama Bridge in Portugal - the longest bridge in Europe before.
Strategic and symbolic significance
According to the New York Times, Kerch Bridge is not only a main supply route for Moscow's forces operating in southern Ukraine. The bridge also has a profound symbolic meaning for Russian President Putin - a pillar in Russia's sovereignty declaration over the Crimean peninsula since the bridge was completed in 2018.
The symbolic bridge and its strategic importance with supplies have long been a potential target for Ukraine. In the summer, the Ukrainian military posted a photo on Twitter threatening to attack the Crimean bridge with guided missiles provided by the US.
There was a time this summer when Crimea Bridge seemed to have been targeted: Russian officials said a drone activated its air defense system. The Ukrainian government did not make an official comment at the time.
The damaged bridge connecting Crimea and Russian territory could cut off the only road to bring supplies from Russia to the country's bases in Crimea.
Russia has stepped up response measures to protect the Crimea bridge, deploying a target ship equipped with full radar equipment, protecting the bridge from attack and conducting drills to protect the bridge with smoke manas.
With military value, the 19 km bridge has a profound symbolic meaning for the Kremlin. After annexing Crimea in 2014, Moscow has said it will connect the peninsula with Russia.
For centuries, negotiations on building a bridge across the Kerch Strait - running between two mountain ranges, creating a fierce wind tunnel - have been unsuccessful.
However, Mr. Putin has focused on the project, despite the natural challenges mentioned above as well as other technical challenges, including the seabed covered with about 76 m of fine silt due to the alluvial flow from different rivers.
During World War II, an iceberg melted in the spring and collapsed a German military bridge that was urgently built over the sea.
After the blasts at Saki Airport in Crimea in August this year, Kerch Bridge has served another purpose: As a quick escape in case of a conflict reaching the Crimean peninsula. At that time, more than 38,000 cars passed through in one day, the most recorded since the bridge was opened.
