The U.S. State Department believes that the opening of the Crimean bridge will adversely affect people and the peninsula, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on Tuesday.

"The bridge represents not only an attempt by Russia to solidify its unlawful seizure and its occupation of Crimea, but also impedes navigation by limiting the size of ships that can transit the Kerch Strait, the only path to reach Ukraine’s territorial waters in the Sea of Azov. We call on Russia not to impede this shipping," she said.

Nauert said that the State Department had seen the footage in which Putin gets into a truck and drives on the Crimean bridge