Moscow Stops Using Crimea Bridge After Ukraine Attacks

Satellite image analysis by Ukrainian intelligence shows that virtually no traffic’ has used link to mainland Russia this year

- ARPAN RAI

Moscow has switched to using overland routes in annexed eastern Ukraine to supply its front lines after repeated attacks by Ukraine on the Kerch Bridge, which links mainland Russia to Crimea.

Analysis of satellite images shows that the bridge, which Russia built after annexing Crimea in 2014, has almost no traffic and may therefore no longer represent an effective military target for Ukraine’s ammunition-strapped troops, according to analysts at Molfar, Ukraine’s biggest private intelligence agency.

Images taken by satellite specialists Maxar – which have been analysed by Molfar and shared with The Independent – show that almost no military freight trains have plied the bridge’s rail line in over three months. In that period just a single Russian freight train carrying around 55 fuel cars was seen crossing the bridge on 29 February.

There was no movement involving Russian military assets on the bridge in March or April, according to Molfar. The agency, based in Dnipro, used a combination of Maxar’s images, railcar counts and cargo identification for its analysis.