A new section of a road in Russia's southern Rostov region that is being built to bypass Ukraine will be finished by November, the Rostov regional government said in a statement.
Construction of the new 5.3 kilometer section was launched late last year. The decision to build the road was made when transportation to some towns in the region's Millerovo district was “hindered” by the fact that a few kilometers of the road were on Ukrainian territory, the statement said.
Relations between Russia and Ukraine have collapsed over the past year and a half following the overthrow of a Russia-backed government in Ukraine and Russia's annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.
The estimated cost of the project is 285 million rubles ($5.7 million), the Rostov government said in the statement, which was published on its website Thursday.
This is not the first project Russia has taken on to create transportation links that bypass Ukrainian territory: Russia is currently building a rail line from the village of Zhuravka in the Voronezh region to Millerovo, as well as multibillion-dollar bridge from the southern Krasnodar region to Crimea.
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