Ukrainian politicians again calculated the damage caused to the country by the loss of the Crimea and the construction of the Crimean bridge. The new figure was made public by the Minister of Infrastructure of the Country Vladimir Omelyan. According to him, the transport crossing limits the passage of vessels across the Kerch Strait. "According to the most conservative estimates, this year we have lost half a billion hryvnia (more than 1 billion rubles. - Prim. Morning. RU). This is a direct loss due to the decrease in the parameters of the vessels for transshipment in the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk, "the official said, speaking on the air of Radio Liberty,. This amount is a direct financial loss, but there is also a "social and economic effect" - losses of shipowners.

Taking into account this circumstance, the damage can already be estimated in billions, "and, possibly, not even a hryvnia". Omelian somehow decided that Russia at any time can close the strait at all times for the passage of ships, although it is obvious that there are no prerequisites for this. Ukraine not for the first time states that the Crimean bridge hinders the passage of ships. In Kiev, they paint apocalyptic pictures of how the Azov ports of the country - first of all Mariupol - will lose more than 40% of cargo turnover. As a result, the profitability of enterprises will fall, which will have to deliver products first by land to other ports, for example Odessa, and there it will be overloaded. But Russian experts say that such statements are complete nonsense. Under the span of the bridge can pass a vessel up to 35 meters.

This is almost the maximum: today in the world there are no vessels that would have a height of more than 42 m, said earlier the general director of the company "Nordic Engineering" Vitaly Gvozdev in an interview with the portal BFM. en. Through the Kerch-Enikalsky Canal all 2015 and 2016. ships were not more than 32.2 meters high, the resource "All Truth".

Larger vessels (for example, ocean cruise liners) simply have nothing to do in the shallow Azov Sea. And Ukraine does not have such large ships at its disposal. Therefore, the problem is completely sucked from the finger. In June, former Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Alexander Kava called the same amount of damage to the economy of Ukraine from the exploitation of the Crimean bridge - 500 million hryvnia, the publication of "Gosnovosti". At the same time, he acknowledged that, despite the inconvenience caused, the transport main would significantly simplify the transportation of cargo for Ukraine. Since 2020. on the bridge will open the movement of trains, which will help transport cargo through the railway. This is much faster and more profitable than transporting goods by water or by detour.

Earlier it was reported that the Ukrainian economy lost almost $ 100 billion because of the armed conflict in the Donbass and the entry of Crimea into the Russian Federation. Such a figure was quoted in the report of Anders Aslund, Senior Researcher of the Eurasian Center of the Atlantic Council. The Crimean bridge is the longest in Russia, its length is 19 kilometers. The highway is being built since 2015. In May 2018. on the bridge was opened car traffic. According to the schedule, the railway section will be put into operation in December 2019.