KERCH , December 23. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken a rail ride from Kerch to Taman in the company of construction workers, thus opening the Crimean Bridge to traffic.

The just-built Crimean Bridge - the longest in Russia and Europe - links the Kerch Peninsula (Crimea) with the Taman Peninsula (in mainland Russia’s Krasnodar Territory).

The bridge consists of parallel automobile and railway sections. The automobile bridge was commissioned in May 2018. Cargo traffic opened later, in the autumn of the same year. The railway bridge will open to freight traffic in June 2020.

On December 27, 2014 the authorities in Kiev interrupted train traffic between Simferopol and Sevastopol in Crimea and cities in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and Poland. Only suburban trains have kept running inside the peninsula since.

The railway part of the bridge across the Kerch Strait was officially finalized on December 18, 2019. The bridge will be transferred to the balance sheet of the operator - the Crimean Railway - on December 25. The departure of the first passenger train from St. Petersburg to Sevastopol is due at 14:00 on December 23. The journey will last 43 hours and 25 minutes.