Chokepoint · Sea of Azov
Kerch Strait
Closed since July 10, 2026Updated November 1, 2026
The Kerch Strait is the narrow channel between Crimea's Kerch Peninsula and Russia's Taman Peninsula. It is the Sea of Azov's only outlet to the Black Sea. The Crimean Bridge crosses it. Russia closed the strait to commercial shipping on July 10, 2026, after Ukrainian drone strikes hit tankers in the Sea of Azov.
- Crimean Bridge
- 19 km
- road opened 2018, rail 2019
- Channel draft limit
- 8 m
- ships up to 215 m long
- Bridge clearance
- 35 m
- under the arch over the channel
- Cargo ships a day
- 0
- Last four weeks; 8 a day in 2023
- Shores
Russia
Crimea (Ukraine)
Is the Kerch Strait closed?
Russia's FSB Border Service stopped accepting requests to pass the strait at 18:10 on July 10, 2026. Russia also suspended traffic on the Don-Azov channel, which links the sea to the Don River. No end date was given. IMF PortWatch counted 0 cargo ships and tankers a day in the four weeks to October 25, against 8 a day in 2023.
The trigger was a wave of Ukrainian drone strikes on tankers and cargo ships in the Sea of Azov. Reuters reported 13 vessels hit on July 10 alone, including 10 tankers. Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, claimed 116 vessels were targeted in nine days. That claim has not been verified independently.
On October 26, 2026, departure permits were issued for grain ships from the ports of Temryuk and Kavkaz. Reuters, citing seven industry sources, reported the permits are valid through November 15, with a Russian naval convoy escorting ships across the Black Sea. Russia has not confirmed this officially. At least one or two ships had passed by late October.
The halt matters because Azov ports handle about a quarter to a third of Russia's seaborne wheat exports. On July 14, 2026, Russia's agriculture ministry said it would reroute grain to other ports.
Ships through the strait each day
Weekly average, January 2023 to October 2026
Where is the Kerch Strait?
The strait runs between the Kerch Peninsula at the eastern tip of Crimea and the Taman Peninsula in Russia's Krasnodar Krai. It is up to about 18 meters deep. The main shipping channel, the Kerch-Yenikale Canal, allows a draft of only 8 meters and ships up to 215 meters long. Large vessels pass one way at a time in convoys with compulsory pilots.
The Crimean Bridge crosses the strait by way of Tuzla Island. The arch over the shipping channel leaves 35 meters of clearance, which limited the size of ships sailing to Ukraine's port of Mariupol before 2022. Kyiv said cargo at Mariupol fell by almost 70% and at Berdiansk by about 50%, because of the arch and Russian inspections.
The Sea of Azov has no other outlet. Its ports include Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog and Yeysk in Russia, and Mariupol and Berdiansk in Ukraine, both occupied by Russia since 2022. The Don-Azov channel links the sea to the Don River, and the Volga-Don Canal connects onward to the Caspian Sea.
CRIMEA
RUSSIA
Sea of Azov
Black Sea
Kerch
Port Kavkaz
Taman
Tuzla Island
CRIMEA
RUSSIA
Sea of Azov
Black Sea
Kerch
Port Kavkaz
Taman
Why does Ukraine attack the Crimean Bridge?
The Crimean Bridge carries road and rail traffic between Russia and Crimea. The road bridge opened on May 15, 2018, when Vladimir Putin drove a KamAZ truck across it. The rail bridge followed in December 2019. The bridge is about 19 km long and cost 227.92 billion roubles, about $3.7 billion.
Ukraine has attacked the bridge to cut Russia's supply routes to Crimea. Ukraine's security service, the SBU, struck it with a truck bomb in 2022, sea drones in 2023 and underwater explosives in 2025.
Ukraine has also attacked the ferries between Port Kavkaz and Port Krym. On July 19, 2026, the commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Brovdi, said his drone campaign had cut the ferries' capacity by 75%. The ferries Yeysk, Maria and SKS One were out of service, and two more were being towed as barges.
Attacks on the bridge and the ferries
- October 8, 2022A truck bomb brings down road spans and sets a fuel train on fire. The road fully reopens on February 23, 2023.
- July 17, 2023Ukrainian sea drones hit the road bridge. A couple driving across are killed and their daughter injured.
- June 3, 2025The SBU sets off underwater explosives at the bridge supports, the equivalent of 1,100 kg of TNT. No one is hurt.
- March–April 2026Ukrainian strikes hit the ferries Slavyanin and Avangard. Slavyanin is disabled on April 5–6.
- July 2026Ukraine says its drones have cut the ferries' capacity by 75%.
Who controls the Kerch Strait?
Russia has controlled both shores of the strait since it annexed Crimea in March 2014. Ukraine and most UN members consider Crimea part of Ukraine. On March 27, 2014, the UN General Assembly backed Ukraine's territorial integrity in resolution 68/262, by 100 votes to 11. Since 2022 Russia has controlled the entire Azov coastline.
In 2003, Russia and Ukraine signed a treaty defining the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait as shared internal waters, with freedom of navigation for both countries' ships. Both countries later abandoned the treaty. Ukraine's parliament denounced it in February 2023, and Russia followed in June 2023.
On November 25, 2018, Russia's coast guard rammed and seized three Ukrainian navy vessels sailing from Odesa to Mariupol, and detained their 24 sailors. The sailors were released in September 2019 in a prisoner exchange.
On April 22, 2026, an international arbitration tribunal ruled on a case Ukraine brought in 2016 under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. The tribunal found that the Sea of Azov was still shared internal waters when Ukraine filed the case, so the Kerch Strait was not an international strait. It also found that Russia had broken its environmental duties under the convention when it built the bridge. No compensation was ordered. Both sides claimed victory.
The strait in law
- December 24, 2003Russia and Ukraine sign a treaty defining the Azov and the strait as shared internal waters.
- November 25, 2018Russia seizes three Ukrainian navy vessels and detains 24 sailors at the strait.
- February–June 2023Both sides denounce the 2003 treaty.
- April 22, 2026A tribunal rules that the Azov was shared internal waters and that the bridge broke Russia's environmental duties. It orders no compensation.
The strait over the years
- 1774The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca gives Russia control of Kerch, Yenikale and Azov. The Crimean Khanate becomes nominally independent from the Ottoman Empire.
- 1944–1945Soviet engineers build a rail bridge across the strait from captured German materials. Ice floes destroy it in February 1945. It is never rebuilt.
- 2003Russia begins building a dam from the Taman Peninsula toward Tuzla Island, which Ukraine holds. Work stops in October after a standoff between the two countries. The dam now joins Tuzla to Taman.
- May 2018Russia opens the road bridge across the strait, four years after it annexed Crimea. Vladimir Putin drives a KamAZ truck across it on May 15.
- Oct 2022A truck bomb damages the road bridge on October 8. Road spans collapse and a fuel train catches fire. Ukraine's SBU later confirms responsibility.
- Jul 2026Russia's FSB Border Service halts commercial passage through the Kerch Strait on July 10 after Ukrainian drone strikes hit tankers in the Sea of Azov.
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