One of the strips of sea that has great strategic importance is the Kerch Strait. Since this strait offers great strategic relevance, it has been the source of numerous disputes between Ukraine and Russia. Among these places there have been numerous incidents because of who is the owner of this strategic area. The latest incident in 2014 also marks the enormous tension that exists between the two countries, especially since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
In this article we are going to tell you about the characteristics and strategic importance and the constructions that have taken place in the Kerch Strait.
Panorama of the Kerch Strait
The Kerch Strait connects the Sea of Azov with the Black Sea. This constitutes a vital link in the chain linking Russia to the Mediterranean. Thanks to this strait, Russia can take resources from the Mediterranean. The construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge was one of the keys to consolidating the relationship between Moscow and Crimea after its annexation. This is because this bridge crosses international waters. This bridge was announced to be divided in order to integrate the territory into the Russian transport network and, finally, it is known that it gives final control of all the maritime routes both in and out of the Sea of Azov.
Russia has used the Kerch Strait Bridge as a political and economic weapon. Your reasons for being able to establish legal action for this bridge is that it provides security reasons. For this reason, the Russian authorities subject merchant ships passing under this bridge to lengthy inspections. These inspections, many times, can take up to several days. These merchant ships are mainly destined for the Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov.
This is one of the reasons why the local Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of being economically suffocating them for the benefit of Russian ports. One of the complaints Ukraine has is that the port of Mariupol is blocked.
Incident in the Kerch Strait
In 2018 on November 25 he had an incident in the Kerch Strait. This occurred when a Russian cargo ship detained 3 vessels of the Ukrainian navy. This prompted the Russian Federal Security Service to denounce vessels that illegally entered Russian territorial waters. By doing this or they violated the national border as they had not requested permission to cross the Kerch Strait.
Due to this incident on the part of Ukraine, Russia fired on and seized the Ukrainian ships off the coast of Crimea. After a long chase, two gunboats and a tugboat were captured by special forces. Up to 6 members of the Ukrainian crew were injured during the battle. That same day, the Ukrainian President signed a decree to apply martial law and it was approved in parliament the following day. Since the situation of the strait of which is quite complicated, events of this style have continued until Russia requested a convocation in order to maintain international peace and security.
Construction of the Kerch bridge
In order to connect the Black Sea with the Azov Sea that separates the Kerch Peninsula from the Taman Peninsula, the Kerch Bridge was built. Both peninsulas belong to Russia today since Crimea belonged to Ukraine until March 2014. This bridge has a lot of history since the Germans tried to lift in World War II but finally the Russians have succeeded. The area where the bridge is built is the narrowest, only 5 kilometers long.
In 1944 a bridge was built but it could not withstand the harsh winter conditions and one like that ice sheet destroyed it. In May 2015, construction of the bridge for both vehicles and rail transport began. In this strait the bridge is approximately 19 kilometers long, being 12 kilometers maritime route.
There is some criticism of the project mainly due to the geological conditions found there. And it is said that the project was abandoned since the rocky substrate was limestone type and there were many karst cavities. This makes the bridge unviable and it is claimed that too in-depth technical geological investigation has not been carried out. The defenders of this project are those who defend that it cannot be undertaken without an exhaustive investigation. The entire terrain is investigated and both static and dynamic load tests have been carried out on the piles. Thanks to these load tests, the foundation has been stabilized.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about the Kerch Strait.