Russia no longer uses the Crimean bridge to supply weapons to the front after Ukrainian strikes damaged the crossing, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on air on March 25.
Hey, @lusterko, is there a convention as to the name used? I’d originally seen the name “Kerch Strait Bridge” used, which I personally prefer, because it talks about the specific body of water that it crosses, whereas there are many bridges in Crimea. But I’ve seen increasing use of “Crimean Bridge”. I don’t know if one is a Russian convention and the other Ukrainian, or if there’s been a shift towards one.
I’d vaguely imagine that “Crimean Bridge” is a name assigned by Russia, since, well, it’s the bridge one crosses to get to Crimea if one is coming from Russia, whereas if Ukraine were naming it, it’d probably be something like the “Russia Bridge”, using the same logic. But I don’t know if there has been any political significance attached in the way that “Ukraine” and “the Ukraine” have significance. If one is more-acceptable in Ukraine, I’d try to use that term, but I would assume that if the Kyiv Independent is using the term, that it’s not at issue. It might also be that using different terminology based on one’s political views could be dangerous, and that they don’t want to encourage different terms being used by different people in Crimea. Or it could be that people have just generally taken up the term, and don’t have strong feelings one way or another about it.
Do you have any take on what the appropriate term to use is?
You're right that the correct name is “Kerch Strait Bridge”. People call it "Crimean bridge" because it's just easier to understand for the people outside of the region. I think that's exactly the reason Kyiv Independent is using it as the name,just like Antonov bridge was called "Kherson bridge" for some time when it was in the news.
As for political meaning behind the name, I don't think there's any. I've never seen or heard any arguments about it neither in Ukraine nor in russian.
My uneducated guess is that it's just easier to say "Crimean" than "Kerch straight" bridge. Same in Ukrainian and russian. Also easier to pronounce.
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