Moldova OKs construction of bridge to Ukraine across Dniester
The Moldovan parliament on Monday ratified an intergovernmental agreement with Ukraine on the construction of a bridge across the Dniester, it said in a statement.
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The cross-border bridge, which will connect the Moldovan village of Cosăuc and the Ukrainian city of Yampil, will become an alternative to a now-nonfunctional ferry crossing at the border crossing nearby.
The bridge will also help relieve congestion at the Mohyliv-Podilskyi-Otaci international border crossing point, which accounts for almost all crossborder traffic between the two states.
Ukraine hopes the bridge will provide Ukrainian exporters with the shortest route from its central regions to Central and South-Eastern Europe, bypassing the Russian-occupied Transnistria.
According to the agreement which Kyiv and Chisinau signed in June, Ukraine will provide funding for the technical design, construction of the bridge and related infrastructure on its territory, while Moldova will build the relevant road infrastructure on its territory.
It is also planned to conclude a separate agreement on further maintenance of the bridge.
The works are expected to be completed by the end of 2025.
The idea of a road bridge across the Dniester was floated back in the mid-2010s, and respective work, which started in 2021, was supposed to have been finished last year but for the full-scale invasion by Russia of Ukraine.
