VLADIMIR Putin has ceremonially driven over a crucial bridge between Crimea and Russia – three months after it was wiped out in a suspected Ukrainian airstrike. Russian state media posted foo…
Built in 2014, just months after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea, the 11-mile-long bridge cost £3.2billion and was Putin's prized project.
It featured a parallel road and rail crossing spanning the Kerch Strait, making it the longest bridge in Europe. But on October 8, a mystery blast wrecked much of the Kerch crossing, taking out a section of the road bridge and sending it collapsing into the Black Sea.Putin's intelligence agency the FSB blamed the attack on the Main Directorate of the Intelligence of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, singling out its head Kirill Budanov., accusing Kyiv of an "act of terrorism".
Russia responded with several waves of brutal strikes on Ukraine's energy facilities and other key infrastructure.On Monday, Russian state media announced that traffic would open on the right side of the road part of the bridge.
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