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Crimean Bridge is target number one for Ukrainian army, general says

According to Marchenko, the Ukrainian Armed Forces "must simply cut off this route for bringing up reserves"

KIEV, June 15./TASS/. The Crimean Bridge is the main target for the Ukrainian military, Major General of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Dmitry Marchenko said on Wednesday.

"The Kerch Strait Bridge is target number one for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. This is not a secret either for their military or for our military. Neither for their civilians, nor for our civilians," the general said.

"It will be the number one target for hitting," the general was quoted as saying by Ukraine’s online news portal Vesti.

According to Marchenko, the Ukrainian Armed Forces "must simply cut off this route for bringing up reserves". In April, Alexey Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said that Kiev would destroy the Crimean Bridge when it had the chance. Meanwhile in May, Viktor Andrusov, advisor to the Ukrainian interior minister said that the Ukrainian Armed Forces had no possibility to make a strike on the bridge, since the Ukrainian military was too far from the coast of the Sea of Azov.

In 2018, the new Crimean Bridge, linking the peninsula with mainland Russia, was opened for cars. In December 2019, the railway passenger service over the bridge was launched, and in June 2020 the bridge was opened for freight trains.

The 19-kilometer Crimean Bridge, the longest one in Russia and Europe, links the Taman Peninsula (Russia’s Krasnodar region) and the Kerch Peninsula (Crimea).

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