REUTERS
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan believes that the construction of the Kerch bridge must be stopped as soon as possible, which could only be achieved under the pressure of international partners and additional sanctions against Russia, the press service of the ministry reports.
"The Minister recalled that on May 24, 2017, Russia announced the restriction of parameters for navigation from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov and back under the arch of the transport bridge across the Kerch Strait. And this means the loss of exports to the United States alone of some 1 million tonnes of Ukrainian metal annually," he said at the International Conference on Maritime Security in Kyiv, the press service reports.
Omelyan also noted that the state of grain logistics in the Azov region has deteriorated significantly as a result of a harsh increase in the cost of freight of sea vessels, in line with the dimensional requirements of the passage through the Kerch Strait.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced immediately after the annexation of Crimea on March 19, 2014, that a bridge should be built across the Kerch Strait. Later, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev signed an order to appoint gas pipeline construction company Stroygazmontazh owned by oligarch Arkady Rotenberg as a general contractor for the construction of a bridge linking Russia to Crimea. The Russian government originally planned to build it before December 2018.