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Why They Hate The Crimean Bridge

Portfolio Armor's Photo
by Portfolio Armor
Wednesday, Jun 04, 2025 - 6:18
Crimean (Kerch Strait) Bridge
The Crimean Bridge over the Kerch Strait. 

Another Attack On The Crimean Bridge

Yesterday, the Ukrainians attacked the Crimean Bridge again ("Crimean Bridge" is the translation of Russia's official name for the bridge over the Kerch Strait, Крымский мост). When I read about the attack on ZeroHedge, I wondered why the Ukrainians have been so obsessed with it. 

If the bridge were mainland Russia's only link to Crimea, attacking it might make some strategic sense, but mainland Russia now has a land bridge to Crimea. 

Ukraine War Map

Why The Ukrainians Are So Obsessed With This Bridge

On my personal account on X on Tuesday, I speculated that the Ukrainians were obsessed with the bridge because it symbolized Russia's renaissance this century. 

Apparently, I was on the right track, but a couple of other accounts elaborated in greater detail. I'll share their thoughts below, and then we'll wrap up with a brief trading update. 

An Affront To Ukrainian Pride  

Here's part of what Russians With Attitude had to say about that: 

They hate this bridge with every fibre of their being. But why? Well, it is an affront precisely because it exists; sturdy pillars holding up four lanes and a rail line, all poured, driven, welded in the open, on schedule, under sanctions.  It stretches across the water like a calm, mathematically perfect sneer.

Kiev's ruling caste, both the old, pre-2013 version of it, and the new, "revolutionary" one, inherited a third or so of the USSR's economic potential. But they sold their birthright for scrap and conference‑room applause. After 30 years of glamorous "independence", they can't explain the yawning void where an economy ought to be. The bridge is their mirror; every girder says: Look what real countries can do, look what happens when a nation still remembers how to coordinate steel, concrete, and will. Hence the ritual fury.

It began before its construction. There were dozens of articles and TV segments hypnotizing the Maidanite: they swore it is literally physically impossible to build this bridge. When it was done, they insisted it's not real. I kid you not. The comment section of every Russian news article about the bridge was flooded with mykolas explaining that the stupid Muscovites can't even tell that the bridge is CGI and not real.

Amerikanets has a supercut below of Ukrainian talking heads claiming the bridge would be impossible to build:

Back to Russians With Attitude: 

Now they're still obsessed with it. We have enough road and rail connections [via the land bridge] to not need it for military supplies; it has played no role in Russian SMO logistics for years at this point.

But if the bridge can be broken, then perhaps it was never proof of their own degeneration?

From this vantage the hatred feels oddly tender, like the tantrum of a bankrupt heir outside a cousin’s new mansion. The louder the curses, the clearer the admission: "We could not have built it, and that fact is intolerable".

It's sad to say, but I think we have more in common with the Ukrainians today than the Russians. Like the Ukrainians, we have squandered a great inheritance, and unlike the Russians, we seem to be unable to build great infrastructure in reasonable time frames. 

Let's wrap this up on a more upbeat note with a quick trading update. 

One Win Booked, Aiming For More 

On Tuesday, we had our first trade exit of the week, for a gain of 385%. 

Options

  1. Call spread on Oklo (OKLO 0.00%↑ ). Entered at a net debit of $0.20 on 12/20/2024; exited at a net credit of $0.97 on 6/3/2025. Profit: 385%.

If we're lucky, we'll have a similar gain on the earnings trade we entered yesterday. 

We may have an exciting trade or two today as well. I ran a few ideas by options guru David Janello yesterday, and we're going to put our heads together on them later today. 

If you'd like a heads up if we end up placing a trade on one, you can subscribe to the Portfolio Armor trading Substack below. And if you don't want to wait for that, you can see our top names via our website or iPhone app. 

 

If you'd like to stay in touch

You can scan for optimal hedges for individual securities, find our current top ten names, and create hedged portfolios on our website. You can also follow Portfolio Armor on X here, or become a free subscriber to our trading Substack using the link below (we're using that for our occasional emails now).

Contributor posts published on Zero Hedge do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Zero Hedge, and are not selected, edited or screened by Zero Hedge editors.
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