Russian link to Crimea attacked

A huge blast on the Kerch Strait bridge – the vital link between mainland Russia and occupied Crimea – has caused a road section to collapse


RUSSIA
UKRAINE
BLACK SEA 


UKRAINE
CRIMEA
Sea of Azov
RUSSIA
BLACK SEA
80km 50 miles


Kerch Strait Bridge, 6:07am: Reported truck bomb blast, seven fuel tanker train wagons catch fire

Kerch
CRIMEA
Tuzla Island

Arch section: Allows for shipping channel

Kerch Strait
RUSSIA

Length: 19km 
Cost: $7 billion 
Opened: 2018


Road bridge: Four-lane highway with capacity for 40,000 vehicles daily. Two spans collapsed

Sabotage: Structural demolition requires “collapse mechanism” to allow weight of structure to bring it down

35m
185m

Passage for shipping

Rail bridge: Dual-railway can handle 94 trains a day – 14 million passengers and 12 million tonnes of cargo per year. Vital military supply link

Pillars: Thousands of support pylons sunk as deep as 56m, with space between to allow strong currents to flow through


Sources: Reuters, BBC, www.most.life, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty 
© GRAPHIC NEWS