Russian strike hits second major Kyiv bridge

A Russian strike hit a second major bridge across Kyiv’s Dnipro River on Saturday, injuring two people and disrupting travel between the Ukrainian capital’s eastern and western banks, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said. The attack followed repeated drone strikes this week on another bridge, as Russia stepped up attacks on the city’s infrastructure.

The strike damaged the road surface and overhead trolleybus wires on the Pivnichnyi, or Northern, Bridge, Klitschko said. Traffic from the left bank to the right bank was blocked, adding to congestion caused by attacks on the Pivdennyi, or Southern, Bridge. “Emergency services are on their way,” he wrote on Telegram.

The two bridges had not been hit before Thursday, the BBC reported. Strikes have severed road, rail and trolleybus links across the river, while the continuing drone threat has brought restrictions on other routes. Traffic jams persisted Saturday, though the BBC said they were less severe than Friday’s gridlock. Many of Kyiv’s roughly three million residents use the metro for daily travel.

After the Southern Bridge attacks, Kyiv’s defence council held a crisis meeting Friday. Klitschko called the city’s position “very dramatic,” saying Moscow was battering its “critical infrastructure, logistics, housing” and other facilities. “The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart,” he warned.

Russia said its drones had struck the bridges because they were used to move Ukrainian troops and military cargo. On Saturday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry again urged foreign citizens, including diplomats, to leave Kyiv or risk harm. Al Jazeera reported that many foreign embassies remained open in the capital.

The BBC reported that experts consider drones unlikely to bring down the bridges, but said repeated strikes could force closures and weaken their structures. More powerful weapons could cause a collapse, it reported. Ukrainian lawmakers have discussed using ferries or temporary pontoon bridges if bridges are destroyed, according to the BBC.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of trying to destroy bridges and other essential services. “They want people to flee their cities,” he told the Financial Times. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that the attacks on Ukrainian economic targets were a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries and ships in the Black Sea. “But they started it,” Putin said. Ukraine says it targets Russian oil infrastructure because it helps finance the war.

Strikes elsewhere also caused casualties Saturday. A Russian attack on a Liberian-flagged civilian ship in Ukraine’s Odesa region killed one crew member and injured three, Ukrainian port authorities said. Al Jazeera reported that 12 other crew members were evacuated safely. Local officials said overnight Russian strikes injured at least 12 people in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.

A Ukrainian drone attack killed two people and injured three in Russian-occupied Luhansk, its Moscow-installed regional head said. Al Jazeera also reported that Russian-installed authorities said a Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and injured 10 in occupied Zaporizhia, while Russian media reported one death in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region.