Long queues for ferry journey across Kerch Strait

(12 Oct 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Kerch, Crimea - 12 October 2022
1. Various of parked trucks
2. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Aleksandr Salyuk, truck driver:
"We have been standing since the 9th (of October), we are provided with food, but with the departure (there is a problem). Since the 9th (of October), we have not moved a single meter. Everything is provided, what we miss is just that we cannot wash ourselves."
3. Pan left of trucks
4. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Andrey Mikhailov, truck driver:
"There is not much information. Columns are formed to go through Mariupol. But the ferry traffic is very little. According to my information, it's only 20-40 cars a day that leave (by ferry). But we have no desire to go through Mariupol."
5. Close of truck moving
6. Various of trucks
7. SOUNDITE (Russian) Maksharip Kochubarov, truck driver:
"There is food and water, there are toilets, there is everything else, there is parking for free, but there is no traffic. The authorities say we might pass the bridge on the 16th (October)."
8. Zoom out of trucks
9. SOUNDITE (Russian) Maksharip Kochubarov, truck driver:
"My wheels are not in a good state to go through Mariupol, if the wheel gets damaged there, then you will have to stay. Those who have cars in a good state, they went. Well, and the issue is security - that's why people don't want to go there. Some run out of fuel, some run out of money, we've been quite a long time the road."
10. Wide of trucks
11. Various of Crimean Bridge
STORYLINE
Hundreds of trucks were on Wednesday waiting for ferries to cross the Kerch Strait, days after an explosion caused the partial collapse of a bridge linking the Crimean Peninsula with Russia.
While traffic for passenger cars and trains resumed over the bridge, freight transport has to either use a ferry to leave Crimea or travel by the mainland through Mariupol and other Ukrainian territories claimed by Russia as its own.
The alternative route through Mariupol isn't popular due to worries about security.
According to truck drivers waiting for the ferries at the former Kerch aerodrome, there has hardly been any movement since Sunday, and many are faced with the prospect of waiting at least another four days, authorities have told them.
"Since the 9th (of October), we have not moved a single meter," one of the drivers told The Associated Press.
"According to my information, it's only 20-40 cars a day that leave (by ferry)," said another driver.
The Kerch Bridge, which holds important strategic and symbolic value, was hit by what Moscow has said was a truck bomb. Road and rail traffic on the bridge were temporarily halted, damaging a vital supply route for the Kremlin's forces.
The 19-kilometer (12-mile) bridge, on a strait between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, is a symbol of Moscow's claim on Crimea and an essential link to the peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
The $3.6 billion bridge, the longest in Europe, is vital to sustaining Russia's military operations in southern Ukraine. Putin himself presided over the bridge's opening in 2018.
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