Russia resumes fuel shipments via Crimea Bridge - ISW

The Russian invasion forces resumed fuel transportation to the temporarily occupied Crimea via a railway bridge across the Kerch Strait.

That’s according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank, Ukrinform reports.

"Footage dated June 8 shows that Russia has begun transporting fuel across the Kerch Strait across the railway bridge," the report says.

Late April, the spokesman for Ukraine’s Operational Command South, Dmytro Pletenchuk, said the Russians had not shipped fuel over the Kerch railway bridge since March 2024, fearing a Ukrainian strike against the bridge as a fuel transport crossed, which could ignite and possibly destroy the bridge.

The Militarnyi outlet assessed that Ukrainian strikes targeting railway barges across the Kerch Strait on May 30 prompted Russian authorities to being transporting fuel across the railway bridge again.

“It is unclear whether Russian authorities will continue to use the Kerch Strait railway bridge for fuel and logistics transport to occupied Crimea in the near to medium term,” the report notes.

Doing so would likely alleviate some logistics constraints as Russia struggles to compensate for lost ferries across the strait but would leave the Kerch Strait bridge increasingly vulnerable to Ukrainian strikes, particularly if Russian air defense coverage of Crimea is degraded, the review concludes.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, 10 sea surface barricades have been installed in the temporarily occupied Crimea along the Crimea Bridge, apparently aimed to protect the site from naval drones.