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Ukraine is accusing Russia of using the newly-constructed Kerch Strait Bridge linking the Russian Federation to the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, to conduct economic warfare by slowing shipping into Ukrainian ports.
Ukraine’s State Border Service said Wednesday that inspections of vessels have risen sharply since the 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge across the Kerch Strait to Russia’s mainland was officially opened in May. Waiting times can be as long as three days, according to spokesman Oleh Slobodyan.
“The creeping hybrid blockade of the Azov Sea has been going on since late spring,” Slobodyan told reporters in Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, reports Bloomberg.
Petro Poroshenko, president of Ukraine declared recently he won’t accept the “illegal seizure of Ukrainian and foreign vessels moving in the direction of Ukrainian ports.”
Western legacy media inflamed the situation earlier in the year when ‘journalist’ Tom Rogan of the Washington Examiner declared that “Ukraine should now destroy elements of the bridge”.
