Russia strikes second major Kyiv bridge in two days as Dnipro crossings take hit

Russia struck the Pivnichnyi (Northern) Bridge in Kyiv on Saturday morning, injuring two people and making it the second major bridge in the capital hit in two days.

The two bridges across the Dnipro River link the western and eastern parts of the capital, and the strikes have now severed road, rail and trolleybus links between them. Russia said its drones had hit bridges used to transfer Ukrainian troops and military cargo. Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said traffic from the left to the right bank was blocked and that emergency services were on their way.

A campaign against the capital’s arteries

The Pivdennyi (Southern) Bridge was hit earlier in the week, and the two bridges had not been struck before Thursday. The attack on the Northern Bridge damaged the road surface and overhead trolleybus wires, causing traffic jams across the city. Kyiv’s defence council held a crisis meeting on Friday after the earlier strikes on the Southern Bridge. Experts say Russian drones are unlikely to bring down the bridges, but repeated attacks will force closure and risk weakening their structure. Some bridges are reported to be in poor condition after years carrying heavier traffic than they were designed for. Ukrainian lawmakers discussed contingency plans to use ferries or temporary pontoon bridges to keep the city connected if spans are destroyed. Kyiv’s residents number about three million, and many rely on the metro to travel across the city daily. President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the Russian campaign: “They want to destroy our bridges... our data centres, the internet, mobile networks, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, universities - everything. They want people to flee their cities.”

Putin calls it retaliation

Putin said Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian economic targets were a direct response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian oil refineries and ships in the Black Sea. He admitted Kyiv had got some results and that Russia had lost about one percent of its GDP. Putin made his remarks after a speech at the Valdai foreign policy forum. Ukraine maintains it began attacking Russian oil infrastructure because it helps the Kremlin finance the war. Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure every winter since the full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Strikes across the region

A Russian attack on a Liberia-flagged civilian ship in the Odesa region killed one sailor and injured three crew members, while 12 crew members were safely evacuated. Russia has in effect blockaded Ukraine’s Black Sea ports by attacking civilian vessels carrying grain and steel. Russia urged foreign citizens, including diplomats, to leave Kyiv, though many foreign embassies are still operating in the city.

Two people were killed in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Russia-occupied Luhansk region, per the Moscow-installed governor. In the occupied Zaporizhia region, Russian-installed authorities said one person was killed and 10 injured in a Ukrainian drone attack. Russian media reported one person was killed in a Ukrainian drone attack on Russia’s Belgorod region.