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Putin Drives Truck to Open New Russia-Crimea Bridge

by VOA News

   Russian President Vladimir Putin drove a truck across a new bridge
   connecting mainland Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea Tuesday, a project
   Ukraine has condemned as a violation of international law.
   Russian state television showed Putin behind the wheel of a
   construction truck with workers on the nearly 20-kilometer drive across
   the bridge, which aims to integrate Crimea with Russia's transportation
   network.
   "I congratulate you on this historic holiday," Putin told workers on
   live television after driving across the span.
   "It will allow [us] to develop with new pace and new quality the
   economy of Crimea, [the Crimean port city of] Sevastopol, to raise
   people's standards of living."

   Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman condemned the project,
   saying it has damaged the environment and that larger ships will not be
   able to pass through its ports on the Azov Sea.
   "The Russian occupying powers, which have temporarily occupied Crimea,
   are continuing to act outside international law," Volodymyr told the
   French news agency.
   Russia annexed Crimea, a peninsula on the northern coast of the Black
   Sea in eastern Europe, in 2014, a move that was condemned by Ukraine
   and the West as an illegal land grab.
   The bridge will make the peninsula easier to reach from southern
   Russia. Long lines of vehicles frequently form as they wait to board
   ferries, which can't always run in winter storms.
   Crimea is a popular destination for Russians during the summer and
   Putin said in March he would like to see the bridge open by the time
   the season arrives.