Invaders will need Kerch Strait Bridge to leave Crimea - Poroshenko

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko wrote this on his Facebook page.

"The illegal construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge is another indication of the neglect of international law by the Kremlin. The fact that its opening takes place on the eve of the anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people by the Stalin's regime is especially cynical," he wrote.

However, according to Poroshenko, despite Moscow's futile attempts to legitimize the temporary occupation of the Crimean peninsula, the consistent decisions of a number of international courts confirm that the burden of a committed international crime will only increase for Russia, and Ukraine will continue to consistently defend its positions. 

In this context, the president recalled that a procedural request on the protection of Ukraine's sovereign interests, in particular, with regard to the illegal construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge, was submitted to the Arbitration Tribunal of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea pursuant to his instruction.

Poroshenko expressed regret that the Russian authorities are trying to engage individual representatives of the European business in their infrastructural gamble, trying to pay off their international legal responsibility. 

"I am confident that the aggressor will not succeed, it will bear responsibility in full. And the invaders will necessarily need the bridge when they will urgently leave our Crimea," he added. 

According to Russian media, Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 15 arrived for the opening of the Kerch Strait Bridge and drove a Kamaz truck across the bridge.

op