Kerch Strait

Geographical location

The Kerch Strait ( named by the ancient Greeks rear sight Generic Bosphorus ) is a strait in eastern Europe, which connects the Black Sea with the Sea of ​​Azov.

Geography

It separates the Crimea ( Ukraine) peninsula in the west of the Taman peninsula (Russia ) in the east, is about 40 km long and at its narrowest point 4 km wide.

On the Ukrainian peninsula lies the city of Kerch, on the Russian peninsula at the narrowest point of the strait of Port Kavkaz and further south than the largest town Staniza Taman.

History

On July 19, 1790 here the naval battle occurred in Kerch, in the course of a Russian fleet stopped the landing of a Turkish invasion army in the Crimea under Admiral Fyodor Fyodorovich Ushakov.

From January to October 1943 took place across the Strait of Kerch to the retreat of the German Caucasus Army / Army Group A, which was covered by the 17th Army in the Kuban bridgehead on the Taman Peninsula. The retreat was one of the Organisation Todt (OT) built ropeway across the Kerch Strait ( daily capacity: 1,000 tons ) carried out, but also by Fährprahmen at sea.

In April 1943, the OT has been started with the construction of a combined road and railway bridge field of war iron bridge parts on the Kerch Strait by German soldiers and units, which lasted until the autumn of that year. On September 1, 1943, the Soviet attacks concentrated on the remains of the bridge head began, so that the German retreat was accelerated. At this time the new bridge was not yet completed. Wehrmacht pioneers blasted then the already completed parts of the bridge. The remaining bridge piers were largely destroyed in February 1945 in ice from the Sea of ​​Azov as the pillar had no icebreaker. In order not to impede the navigation, the debris were removed.

A ferry was built in 1953, just as a train ferry. They were closed in 1993, opened in late 2004 for the freight but again. Occasionally, as in 2010, was also thinking about the re- construction of a bridge, but these projects never came because of their high cost and unproven profitability beyond the planning stage.

In 2003 there was a dispute between Ukraine and Russia over the small Ukrainian managed, but disputed between the two countries Tuzla island (200 m wide, 6 km long) in the middle of the Kerch Strait. Russia wanted to build on the Taman Peninsula forth a causeway to the island of Tuzla, which would have led inter alia to a change in the water currents in the Kerch Strait. At present (2010), the dam is completed to about 2/3.

During the Krimkrise 2014 Russian Prime Minister Medvedev announced the imminent construction of a bridge across the strait. The planning of this had taken concrete form in October 2013.