MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin drove a Mercedes across the Crimean Bridge on Monday, connecting southern Russia to the annexed Crimean peninsula less than two months since an explosion through one of the Kremlin chief's showcase infrastructure projects.
The 19 km long road and rail bridge, which was personally opened by Putin in 2018, was bombed on 8 October in an attack Russia said was carried out by Ukraine.
Putin, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin, was shown on state television behind the wheel of a Mercedes, asking questions about where the attack took place.
Putin said he was driving on the right hand side as he drove across the bridge. The left side of the bridge is in working condition but still needs to be completed, as I understand it. It still suffered a bit, but we need to bring it to an ideal state. Putin walked along parts of the bridge, Europe's largest, to inspect sections that are still visibly scorched.
Ukraine never claimed responsibility for the bombing of the bridge on the morning of October 8, a day after Putin's 70th birthday. The attack was organised by Ukrainian military intelligence, according to Russia's Federal Security Service.
The explosion halted traffic across the Kerch Strait, halting a section of the road bridge. The blast also destroyed several fuel tankers on a train headed for the annexed Crimean peninsula from southern Russia.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, which was transferred from Soviet Russia to Soviet Ukraine in 1954 by then Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and recognized by Russia in 1994 after the collapse of the USSR.
Ukraine will return Crimea, which relies on the bridge for supplies.
The vast structure, built by Putin's ally Arkady Rotenberg, is Europe's longest bridge. Putin has long praised the project, boasting that Russian tsars and Soviet leaders had dreamed of building it, but never did.