Putin's Army Hurt by Influx of Russian Tourists to Crimea—ISW

President Vladimir Putin has ordered regional officials to reroute Russian tourists causing traffic jams in Crimea through annexed Ukrainian territories, it has been reported.

The seasonal influx of visitors from the Russian mainland to the peninsula annexed by Putin in 2014 is posing problems along one of the Russia's "most important ground lines of communication," according to U.S.-based think tank The Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

One Russian milblogger said traffic at the entrance of the Kerch Strait Bridge had increased by 40 percent since the start of July and would increase further in the summer tourist season.

Crimea is in an important location for the war in Ukraine Putin started. The southern front could see Kyiv's troops push south from the neighboring Kherson region where they are trying to cross to the Moscow-controlled left (east) bank of the Dnieper River. If successful, Crimea, which Kyiv has vowed to take back, could be next in their sights.

Putin instructed Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev on Monday to work out how to direct the flow of tourists through annexed Ukrainian territories, state news agency Tass reported.

However, these have been targets of the Ukrainian counteroffensive. On Wednesday, a deputy chief from the Ukrainian General Staff, Oleksiy Hromov, confirmed Ukrainian forces used Storm Shadow missiles to hit the bridge across Crimea's Chonhar Strait on June 22.

Kondratyev told Putin that it would "be a source of pride for the tourists to drive through the new Russian territories," with motorists being advised to bypass the bridge and take the "land corridor" to Crimea, independent Russian news outlet Agentsvo reported.

The land corridor goes through Mariupol in the Donetsk region and Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, both of which Russia has claimed to have annexed.

Another Russian milblogger said that Moscow had not correctly analyzed how much Russians wanted to spend their holiday in Crimea, despite the war.

The milblogger suggested that to solve traffic problems, the country's Black Sea Fleet should provide two ships for cars to cross between the peninsula and Russia's nearby Krasnodar region.

The ISW said on Tuesday that Russian authorities are dealing with civilian and transport problems in Crimea "partially because of their continued refusal to fully mobilize Russian society onto a wartime footing."

This meant that the peninsula Moscow, annexed in 2014 and which Kyiv has vowed to take back, continues to be promoted as a vacation destination despite being "a legitimate rear-area target for continued Ukrainian strikes."

On Tuesday, Russia's transport minister, Vitaly Savelyev, discussed with Putin the high traffic at the entrance to the Kerch Strait Bridge and asked for increased ferry crossings to reduce jams, state news agency Tass reported.

Putin called for ferries to "normalize" the situation and indicated that the Russian Ministry of Defense could lend transport assets to the area. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Transport Ministry for comment.

In the summer of 2022, Russian military bases on the peninsula were hit in repeated strikes not directly claimed by Ukraine. Kyiv was boosted by an attack on the Kerch Bridge, which links Crimea with mainland Russia and is a symbol of its occupation.