The bombing of the Crimean bridge will affect the possibility of supplying the Russian army in southern Ukraine, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) writes in a daily update.
According to the analysts’ assessment, tourists who are forced to leave Crimea through the occupied territories have complicated traffic and prevented supplies from the peninsula to the rear areas of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions of Ukraine. On the other hand, the logistics of the Russian army will be complicated by the continued flow of tourists to Crimea during the summer season. This is a result of Russia’s continued positioning of the peninsula as a tourist destination.
Russia could supply the army in southern Ukraine through two routes: via the Kerch bridge and through the occupied regions. After the damage to the site, only one route temporarily remains, through which Russia can supply the large number of mechanized forces in southern Ukraine needed to repel the Ukrainian counteroffensive, ISW writes.
Overall, Russian logistics in southern Ukraine are likely to suffer in the short to medium term, the institute’s analysts concluded.
After the explosions on the Crimean bridge, automobile passage across it was restricted. The authorities offered tourists vacationing in Crimea to use an alternative land route – through the annexed territories. As a result, multi-kilometer traffic jams formed on the way out of the peninsula in Dzhankoy district of Crimea and occupied Kherson region towards Melitopol.
It will be possible to fully restore traffic on the Crimean bridge only by November 1, said Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin after a meeting with Vladimir Putin. It will not be possible to repair the bridge as easily as last year, the Deputy Prime Minister admitted. According to him, the supports have not been damaged, but one 600-ton span is completely destroyed.
So far, the authorities have launched traffic only on the rightmost lane of the direction Taman–Kerch. Cars are allowed through it in reverse mode, i.e. one by one in each direction.
