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By Isabel van Brugen
News Reporter
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The Kerch Strait Bridge that connects Russia with annexed Crimea, which has twice been struck by Kyiv's forces, has become a significant security burden for Moscow, Britain's defense ministry has said.
The bridge is a key supply route for Russia's forces and Moscow's sole land link with Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by President Vladimir Putin in 2014.
Ukraine struck the 19-kilometer (12-mile) road and rail bridge in October 2022 and again in July. The bridge, which has a four-lane roadway for vehicles and a railway bridge with two tracks, is crucial to sustaining Moscow's military offensives in southern Ukraine. Satellite photos obtained by Newsweek show that the railway was damaged by Kyiv's second strike.
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The U.K. Ministry of Defense said in its intelligence update on Thursday that Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin had declared the damage from the July strike had been repaired ahead of schedule.
"Although fully operational, use of the bridge remains restricted due to procedures enacted following the first Ukrainian attack in October 2022. Trucks and fuel supplies continue to be moved by ferry," defense officials said.
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Although the bridge will remain a vital link in sustaining Russia's occupation of Crimea and its forces in southern Ukraine, the U.K. officials said, it is now "almost certainly a significant security burden requiring multi-domain protection, including the use of air defence systems and crews who would otherwise be deployed elsewhere."
The defense ministry added: "Russian security forces' confidence in their ability to protect this large and vulnerable structure will continue to be threatened by the ingenuity of Ukraine's military and security services."
Newsweek has contacted Russia's Foreign Ministry for comment via email.
Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commanding general of United States Army Europe, told Newsweek the targeting of the bridge was part of Kyiv's "multi-domain" counteroffensive to reclaim occupied territories, including Crimea.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to reverse Russia's annexation of Crimea.
"The counteroffensive is so much more than just the ground part where they're going through the minefields in the trenches. That's an important part. But it's a part that I think is aimed at severing the so-called land bridge," Hodges said.
"This is all part of making Crimea untenable, unusable for the Russian military, until the Ukrainians have enough combat power where they can actually liberate the peninsula," Hodges said.
"So it's kind of three steps. One is isolation. Number two is make it untenable so that the Black Sea fleet has to reposition, that the Russian Air Force has to reposition, that Russian logistics have to reposition away from Crimea."
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