Northern Bridge struck, traffic blocked
A Russian air attack on Saturday struck the Northern Bridge in Kyiv, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko. The bridge, which crosses the Dnipro River, was hit following a drone alert. Klitschko said the road surface and trolleybus overhead wires were damaged, and that traffic from the left bank to the right bank was blocked. Emergency services were dispatched to the scene. No casualties were reported.[S1][S2]
Saturday's strike on the Northern Bridge followed repeated Russian drone hits on the Southern Bridge across Thursday and Friday. Those earlier attacks severely disrupted movement in the capital, halting both metro service and vehicle traffic over the Southern Bridge. Queues of idling cars and buses filled the main roads, producing gridlock. The Northern and Southern bridges carry traffic between Kyiv's eastern and western banks, and neither had been struck before Thursday, which points to a shift in Moscow's approach.[S1][S2]
Escalating attacks on Kyiv's infrastructure
The bridge attacks fit within a wider intensification of Russian strikes against Kyiv's essential infrastructure. The previous week, Russia began what Ukrainians interpreted as the opening of an anticipated winter air campaign aimed at the installations that deliver power to the capital. Moscow has in the past rejected accusations that it deliberately targets civilians. Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed Russia is responding to Ukrainian attacks on its energy sites, even though Moscow was the first to carry out such strikes.[S1][S2]
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin had concluded that no rules apply anymore when Ukraine is attacked. Speaking to the Financial Times, Zelensky said Russia had been unable to occupy Ukraine and was instead conducting large-scale strikes and mass killings. He said they intend to destroy bridges, data centres, the internet, mobile networks, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, universities and everything else, so that people abandon their cities. After the Southern Bridge was hit, passengers recounted dust from a blast wave entering their carriage via the ventilation system. Kyiv's defence council met in crisis session on Friday, after which Klitschko cautioned that the city faced a very dramatic situation as Moscow pounded its critical infrastructure, logistics, housing and other key facilities.[S2]
