ALTERNATIVE AFTER ATTACK

The Russian transport ministry has set up a ferry service across the four-kilometre-wide Kerch Strait between Russia and Crimea as an alternative to the Crimean Bridge, which was badly damaged in an attack on Saturday.

This is reported by the American Maritime Executive on the authority of, among others, ‘Russian officials’. They state that part of the passenger transport has resumed via the damaged railway bridge, but that no heavy freight trains are running over it yet.

According to Russian sources, two ferry ships are already sailing on the route, which was still served by ferries until 2020, and two more are expected to join on Monday. Parking spaces for waiting passenger cars and trucks are said to have been set up on both sides of the strait. The Crimean Bridge was personally opened by President Putin on 15 May 2018.

On Saturday, two spans of the westbound bridge deck for car traffic collapsed into the sea as a result of a huge explosion. The adjacent eastbound deck remained in place. The parallel railway bridge was also damaged as seven wagons loaded with fuel caught fire as a result of the explosion and largely burned out.