“Who believes in Mohammed, who believes in Allah, who believes in Jesus,” he once sang Vladimir Vysotsky. And a certain part of the Ukrainian population believes in the destruction of the bridge under construction to Crimea. And the further this construction continues, the more reasons for a man-made disaster are found in Independence.
“One support sank by a meter, the second by one and a half.”
The despondency in the ranks of Ukrainian patriots that arose after the arched span of the railway part of the bridge took its place was replaced by a joyful sensation: the bridge was supposedly sagging.
The news that made the rounds of the Ukrainian media, as usual, was based on information from a reliable source - a post by a certain user under the nickname prosto vova.
It read: “Friends from Crimea brought good news: after yesterday’s installation of the Crimean bridge span, one support sank by a meter, the second by one and a half. The drawdown continues. Work has been suspended, no one knows what to do. They hope to stop the subsidence of the supports.
Workers were told to remain silent. What do you say? Cool news. Especially if this pig completely fails.”
Who is the author of the “sensation”?
Despite the fact that in the comments other users began to popularly explain to the author why this is technically impossible, those who are waiting not for the bridge, but for it to fall, latched on to the “cool news.”
At the same time, the media named the author of the “sensation” blogger Ilya Valiev, who in fact only quoted the message, indicating that the author of the stuffing was opposition blogger Vladimir Maltsev, who left Russia some time ago and now positions himself as a “Moscow Bandera member.”“There is nothing to take from the Ukrainian media. The text about subsidence supports was spread all over the mustard plasters. Completely ignoring both the quotation mark and my irony... listen, if I had known that there would be such a stir, I would have screenshotted Vovin’s epic comment earlier. Is it really possible to believe this information from an officer’s daughter of a builder? How stupid,” writes Ilya Valiev.
However, no one is interested in the details. In Ukraine, thousands of people exchange good news, hoping for its confirmation.
BDK "Azov" passed under the bridge singing
And the most obvious evidence of what is happening could be the cessation of navigation in the Kerch Strait. After all, if the bridge sags, it means that the height of the surface part of ships that can pass under it also decreases.
And so, as if mocking the timid hopes of the haters, under the bridge. The vessel, more than 100 m long and with a displacement of 4080 tons, proceeded in the direction of Azov in a solemn atmosphere - the crew lined up on board, playing the song “Legendary Sevastopol” on the broadcast. And from the bridge the sailors were greeted by builders, filming the passage warship on video.
The sailors did not even think about trolling their neighbors - the Azov was heading to the city of the same name, where it would take part in the celebrations on the occasion of the 950th anniversary of its founding.
According to the official website of the Crimean Bridge project, with reference to data from the Vessel Traffic Control Services on the morning of September 6, since the installation of the railway arch, a total of more than 550 ships transiting along the Kerch-Yenikalsky Canal from the Black Sea to the Azov Sea have passed under it. back.
“I typed it into YouTube and went crazy”: how Ukrainians react to the real Kerch Bridge
Facing reality becomes a difficult ordeal for some. This time he excelled coordinator of the civil platform “Successful Country” Pavel Sebastianovich. His post on Facebook was full of irritation: “I was not interested in the Kerch crossing until I saw joyful posts in my feed about some arch subsidence by 2 meters. I typed the Kerch bridge into YouTube and went nuts. There is a real construction project of the century there. They call the future bridge Crimean. There are tons of infographics and videos online. 19 km long. 4 lanes for cars. 2 railway lines. Automobile lanes will be launched next year, and railway lanes in 2019. And the old ferry crossing will continue to operate. How so? After all, our jingoistic patriots promised that the bridge would collapse. I wish I hadn't looked. The Russians now fully control access to the ports of the Azov Sea. I don’t know how the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk work now. What do we have in 2018 - 2019? I looked at the Cabinet reform plan. Groysman promised to introduce control over the income and expenses of citizens in 2018-2019. Well what can I say? Also a big infrastructure project. What depresses me in this whole story is the economic lag of Ukraine. We are still waiting for Mordor to fall apart. And we are not doing anything for our development.”
Of course, critics immediately came to Sebastianovich, who reproached him for decadent feelings and “glorifying the aggressor.”
“This is not a fast. What’s bad with us is mischief and patriotism. Why post bravura posts about how everything is lost there, when everything there is almost finished?,” Sebastianovich snapped back, “We haven’t done anything for an economic breakthrough.” Therefore, the information about the almost completed bridge had the effect of a cold shower on me. The entire future prospects for Crimea with such a transport artery are changing dramatically.”
US Navy in the Sea of Azov: will Washington start World War III because of the bridge?
By the way, it was not only the “patriots of Ukraine” who were affected. According to the media, a number of experts in the United States seriously propose to unblock the Crimean Strait by force.
According to the Ukrainian portal Vesti, experts from the American consulting organization Atlantic Council supported this decision.
Expert Stephen Blank believes that the United States should send its ships to the Sea of Azov, since the construction of a bridge across the strait will cut off two important Ukrainian ports, Mariupol and Berdyansk, through which Ukrainian steel exports pass.
The expert also believes that the construction of a bridge in the Kerch Strait “damages the reputation of the United States” and “demonstrates contempt for the head of the White House Donald Trump" According to Steven Blank, the closure is a blow for the United States. " Putin trying to create the illusion of great power, equal to the United States,” Blank said.
The vehicle span of the bridge being built across the Kerch Strait was secured to fairway supports. Read more in the material Federal News Agency.
At noon, navigation in the Kerch-Yenikalsky Canal was resumed in normal mode- 18 hours earlier than planned. The day before, the builders managed to raise the arch weighing more than five thousand tons to a height of 35 meters. In total this process took about five hours.
Let us note that the operation to install the arch of the Crimean Bridge began on Wednesday; shipping traffic in the strait was suspended for 72 hours. The arched span, 45 meters high and 227 meters long, was delivered to the bridge using tugs.
Ukrainians' reaction
In Ukraine, it is usually customary not to talk about the construction of a bridge or not to notice it. However, it is obvious that reasonable Ukrainians admire the monumentality of the structure. So, a certain Facebook user Moishe Konovaloff wrote that today's Crimea belongs to a great country.
“Crimea belongs to a great country. Every six months they will now ask, whose is Crimea? It’s like pinching myself whether I’m alive or not,” he writes.
There was also some irony. Many Ukrainian users, recalling the official statements of the leadership of their country and clearly mocking the Kyiv leadership, wrote that these were all allegedly the tricks of Mostfilm, photoshop, and the bridge itself was made of cardboard.
“The second episode from Mostfilm,” writes Alexander Nevenchannyy.
“Cardboard? Or photoshop?” - asks Vladimir Ostrovoy. Why does someone Oleg Repnikov answers: “Papier-mâché.”
“Steven Spielberg is quietly jealous of Mosfilm,” writes Andrey Gulenko.
In turn, the former Minister of Justice of Ukraine Elena Lukash ironically noted that each country has its own news. So, she showed the headline of the Ukrainian media: “A cable car for coffins has been launched in the Carpathians.” What does she need Valery Antipov replies: “Not a bridge arch, of course, but also nothing.”
Note that the Crimean Bridge will connect the shores of the peninsula and Kuban in the first quarter of 2018. It is planned that by this time the construction of the roadway will be completely completed. Car traffic on the bridge itself should begin at the end of 2018.
The bridge across the Kerch Strait, which connected the Russian mainland with the peninsula, is the same irritant for the Nezalezhnaya authorities as the “annexation” of Crimea with the “occupation” of south-eastern Ukraine that they invented. Because of this, they are literally ready to pour out bile when commenting on any of these events. At the same time, in Kyiv they either do not understand the essence of what is happening, or stubbornly pretend that they do not notice the positive changes that have long been obvious to all sane people. But most importantly, they do not realize that each of their next loud statements or body movements is just a manifestation impotent anger. In Ukraine they understand perfectly well that Crimea will never be returned to them, and with the commissioning of the bridge across the Kerch Strait, the economic connection of the peninsula with the rest of Russia will increase many times over. Ukrainian authorities They just can’t come to terms with this, and the only thing they can do is create a fuss around the construction, which is epoch-making from all points of view. 
On December 29, the former deputy chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, reserve lieutenant general Igor Romanenko, added his own bit of hatred about this matter. During a chat with Ukrainian readers It is difficult to say whether the general has moved away from trench life, but it seems that he has not yet learned to think in the normal categories of a civilian. If all major facilities under construction on planet Earth were assessed today in terms of their vulnerability to attack missile strikes, people most logically should live in caves and move along forest paths. Fortunately, this doesn't happen. 
As for the thoughts periodically born in the inflamed brains of another “expert” of Square, starting in February 2014, they increasingly resemble the delirium of a not entirely healthy person. At first, these experts could not (read: did not want) to believe that Russia was really going to build a bridge across the Kerch Strait. Foaming at the mouth, they argued that all such statements were nothing more than PR. When it became impossible not to notice the fact itself, they began to come up with all sorts of reasons why the construction of the bridge had to be stopped. The main argument: the bridge will supposedly interfere with shipping and cut off the Ukrainian ports of the Azov Sea from world trade routes. It didn’t work. Even the West laughed at Ukrainian nonsense. Then Ukrainian “ecologists” were brought into this matter, who screamed to the whole world that the construction was extremely dangerous for environment. When this did not pass, Ukrainian politicians began to scribble statements of claim to all sorts of courts with a request to bring Russia to justice for... Apparently, there were smart heads who whispered: “There’s nothing to catch here at all.” And then True, while talking about missile attacks and airstrikes on the Crimean Bridge, for some reason he omitted one “ small" detail. And he didn’t say who (at least hypothetically) was going to deliver these blows. Perhaps he is referring to the future missile boats of the Ukrainian “mosquito” fleet? Or is he hoping for anti-tank Javelins, which are about to arrive from the USA? Or maybe he firmly believes in the capabilities of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces? 
If the retired general is going to continue to put such lies in the ears of Ukrainian citizens, let him be completely frank. And he will say that any attempt to deliver any strike on a strategic facility of the Russian Federation, which is the Crimean Bridge, will mean a declaration of war on a nuclear power. And at the same time it will explain which country in the world today would dare to do something like this. This is not for you to fight with the civilian population in the south-east of Ukraine... The Southern Military District of the Russian Ministry of Defense, in whose area of responsibility the Kerch Strait is located, has a sufficient number of air defense and missile defense systems. Including the latest generation. And it is unlikely that any army, even the most hostile towards us, will risk testing in practice the degree of combat readiness of these means. As for the direct protection of the transport crossing of the bridge, this function will be assigned to the soldiers of the Russian Guard. A new unit will appear in its structure - a maritime brigade, which will focus not only on protecting the water area, but will also monitor the underwater situation. In particular, the task of repelling saboteur attacks and searching for explosives will be carried out by a detachment of combat scuba divers. Underwater fighters will be provided with special small arms and high-speed anti-sabotage boats (presumably Project 21980 “Rook”). The boats are planned to be equipped with reconnaissance vehicles that will allow them to detect not only enemy personnel, but also underwater targets. 
They will monitor the surface and underwater situation in the bridge area 24 hours a day. Plus, air defense of the transport crossing itself in the near zone will definitely be provided. According to Murakhovsky, this will be entrusted to the calculations of the Buk and Tor anti-aircraft systems, coupled with radar stations. So comrades from Ukraine, who are haunted by our bridge, should relax long ago. Russian Crimea will be very closely connected with the mainland of the country, and none of the enemies will be allowed to touch it even with a finger. The opinion expressed in this material is the author's and may not coincide with the opinion of the editors.
General and former deputy chief of the General Staff of Ukraine Igor Romanenko made another statement about “militant plans of Ukraine.”
After publishing the latest photographs of the Crimean Bridge under construction, the military said that “the Bridge is a strategic artery that can support the enemy’s corresponding Crimean grouping, as well as contribute to the economic growth of Crimea.” At the same time, according to him, “the design is vulnerable to aircraft and land- and sea-based missiles.”
The Russian side has already responded to the Ukrainian military. In particular, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Defense and Security Yuri Shvytkin recommended that the Ukrainian side be more interested not in the Crimean Bridge, but in the economic and political state of Ukraine itself.
As the Russian official stated, “I would advise the Ukrainian military not to be interested in the Crimean Bridge, but to direct more efforts to the internal situation in their country. For example, to fight various nationalists who threaten the security of most of the population of Ukraine. Probably, we need to act in this direction. And not to harbor any aggressive plans towards any country, in particular towards our state.”
At the same time, the deputy emphasized that “We have enough forces and means that are already ensuring the security of this facility. If any threat arises, an adequate response will follow.”
The Federation Council of the Russian Federation also commented on the words of the General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In particular, the first deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Defense and Security, Franz Klintsevich, said: “There are not many crazy people who walk around in uniform on the territory of Ukraine. As for normal people, they understand that this is counterproductive and extremely dangerous. As soon as some kind of missile or plane takes off with the desire to strike the Crimean Bridge... we will not stand on ceremony, because this is an encroachment on our territorial integrity and a threat to the lives of Russian citizens.”
Russian telegram channels also reacted vividly to the statement of the Ukrainian general. For example, the authors of the “Release the Kraken” channel noted that “Kyiv is also vulnerable to air and missile attacks.”
The channel “Zrada Chi Peremoga” gives a similar description of Romanenko’s words: “But this is a problem with any other bridge. Through the Dnieper, for example.”
On the “Major and General” channel, Romanenko gave a detailed answer: “Comrade General! Purely theoretically, it is, of course, possible to strike the bridge. But since it (and this is no secret), like the entire territory of Russia, is reliably guarded by air defense forces, you are unlikely to succeed. But we want to talk about something else. If you, guided by the military concepts of the last/before last century, believe that, having destroyed the logistics support channels, you will confidently attack Crimea through the Perekop Isthmus, and the exhausted (without a bridge) Russian army will defend him with all his might, I can assure you that it will not be like that at all.
Any attack on the Crimean Bridge will be clearly regarded as aggression against Russian Federation and in 10-12 hours (at the latest - in a day) the advanced units will reach the outskirts of Kyiv. This is the price that will be paid for this adventure. By the way. In your capital, Comrade Saakashvili is now hiding from the Georgian authorities, he will tell you how it happens when the road to the capital suddenly turns out to be completely clear and Russian paratroopers calmly take pictures against the backdrop of the outskirts of Tbilisi.”
Moving away from the military theme and the country’s defense capability, it is worth paying attention to Romanenko’s passage that the bridge contributes to the economic growth of the region. That is, the economic growth of Crimea is very bad and wrong for Ukrainian patriots. In general, there is nothing new in what Romanenko let slip. They constantly let it slip there.
But this phrase is another marker that reveals the true desires of the Ukrainian elites regarding Crimea: to destroy. Turn into ashes. Well, or for people there to at least beg and starve.
At the same time, around the Crimean Bridge itself and its construction, Ukrainians organize natural pagan rituals. About the same as around Putin. This bridge, according to Ukrainian nationalists, will not be built at all, but it needs to be blown up or sunk, or destroyed in any way, but still it will sink by itself.
Despite this squeal, the bridge is being built as planned. By the way, according to the latest data, vehicular traffic on it will begin in 2019.
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The construction of a bridge across the Kerch Strait will cause irreparable damage to the Ukrainian budget. In Kyiv, they believe that the ability to freely travel from one Russian region to another will somehow affect the financial well-being of the neighboring state. Such concerns were shared by a representative of the fictitious prosecutor's office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (ARC), Gunduz Mamedov.
“The damage from the construction of the bridge is estimated at 10 billion hryvnia (22.3 billion rubles). We are preparing to appoint an environmental engineering examination. We have resources to carry it out, but we would not like to talk about them,” Mamedov said on the TV channel "Direct".
The prosecutor’s officer did not specify exactly how the presence of the bridge would harm the Ukrainian economy. However, in June of this year, Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine Yuriy Lavrenyuk stated that the crossing would interfere with shipping. The official said that the construction of the structure will lead to a significant reduction in ship calls at the seaports of Mariupol and Berdyansk, a reduction in their cargo turnover, as well as the profitability of the region’s metallurgical enterprises.
Previously, Ukrainian officials also announced irreparable environmental damage that the bridge would allegedly cause to the ecosystem of the Azov Sea. As evidence, Kyiv provided aerial photographs of the Kerch Strait taken by NASA satellites. These personnel were sent for a special examination.
A representative of the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (which is actually located in Kyiv), Gunduz Mamedov specializes in calculating the damage that Russia caused to Ukraine through its actions to annex the Crimean Peninsula. In August, he stated that Kiev’s loss of control over the territory of Crimea and all the ensuing consequences deprived Independence of UAH 1.08 trillion (2.41 trillion rubles).
The losses were assessed by the guild of appraisers at the request of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Mamedov explained. The announced amount included Scythian gold, archaeological heritage, and works of art that went to the Russian Federation.
Ukrainians spoke about damage of 1 trillion UAH from the loss of Crimea last spring. According to the country's chief military prosecutor, Anatoly Matios, this figure takes into account only the value of real estate and infrastructure of state-owned enterprises, without taking into account territorial losses and private property on the peninsula.
In September 2015, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin said that Ukraine would demand that Russia recover about $50 billion in international courts as “damage compensation” for Crimea and Donbass. At the same time, he noted that Kyiv cannot count on quick satisfaction of its demands by international courts: “This is a matter of four to six years.”
Prior to this, First Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine Natalya Sevastyanova stated that Ukraine would try to appropriate foreign property from Russia as compensation for economic losses during the secession of Crimea from the country.
The Crimean Bridge should connect Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory. The total length of the structure will be 19 km, the bridge will be the longest in Russia. It is expected that road traffic along it will be launched in 2018, and rail traffic in 2019.