![]() “This is a loss of exports to just the United States of 1 million tons of Ukrainian metal annually!” the former minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine (2016–2019) Volodymyr Omelyan stressed two years ago. ![]() Additionally, due to the height limits of the main arch of the Kerch Bridge, 144 merchant vessels Mariupol had previously worked with have lost the possibility of passage to the Sea of Azov ( 24tv.ua, May 14, 2018). ![]() Some of these incidents occurred only 5–7 miles from the Ukrainian coast and lasted up to 28–57 hours before the vessels were allowed to depart on their way (see EDM, J , December 15, 2020). Moreover, both during the construction phase and since completion, it was accompanied by frequent freedom-of-navigation restrictions (“access denial”-see below), including systematic Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Coast Guard boarding and inspections of merchant vessels traveling through the Kerch Strait to/from Berdyansk and Mariupil, the Ukrainian ports in the Sea of Azov. Immediately, experts identified Moscow’s bridge building project as, in part, a deliberate “access limitation” operation. Russia’s “hard power” activity in the Sea of Azov has increased significantly since May 2018, when the authorities officially opened the Kerch Strait Bridge they had been building since the illegal annexation of Crimea (UNIAN, May 15, 2018).
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