Russian Kerch Bridge will harm significantly Ukrainian trade, study says
4 September 2017
Russia’s current bridge construction across the Kerch
Strait, connecting the mainland with the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula,
will hurt significantly Ukraine’s international trade, according to a study
performed by the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies in Kyiv.
The new bridge – which the Russian Transport Ministry expects will be opened in
2018 – will restrict ship traffic in the Black and Azov seas, incur reduced
trade and economic damage to Ukrainian ports of Mariupol and Berdiansk, and
cause socio-economic risks of stagnation in Ukraine’s Azov region, which
includes the Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, said the study, as
reported by the epravda.com.ua news site on
Sept. 3.
The bridge’s low height will significantly restrict
access to the Azov sea for many Ukrainian ships, potentially causing a loss of
up to 43% of traffic of the Mariupol Sea Port, among Ukraine’s biggest. That
would threaten about one million tons of Ukrainian-produced cast iron under
contract with American clients, the study said, with even more potential damage
to Ukraine’s metallurgical industry as a whole. The mere construction efforts
will block traffic at a cost of USD 20,000 per day, affecting between 70 and 90
ships per day, the study said. The Russian government began blocking traffic
through the strait completely on Aug. 9, with plans to reopen only one-way
traffic during construction. The Ukrainian government alleges the bridge is
illegal and is preparing a complaint for international litigation.
Zenon Zawada: Russia is
fighting its war with Ukraine on all levels: military, political, cultural,
information, and in this case, economic. A lawsuit is a logical step, but it
will achieve little in practical terms. The more the Azov region suffers
economically, which is promised with the bridge’s completion, the more its
residents – already Russian-oriented culturally and politically – will be
convinced of the need to realign themselves with Russia.
to regain the support of southeast Ukraine, whose voters work in industries
that had Russian enterprises as their biggest clients. The Russian-oriented
Opposition Bloc will be ready to gather those votes with the hopes of forming a
parliamentary majority, if not a strong Russian-oriented opposition with other
Russian-oriented parties.
