Russian drones partly shut three Kyiv bridges over Dnipro

Russian drone attacks forced three of Kyiv's six road bridges over the Dnipro River to close fully or partly on Friday, the city's mayor said, causing traffic jams across the Ukrainian capital. The Southern Bridge took repeated hits, and a separate overnight strike on a 25-storey apartment building killed one person.abcnews+2

Targeting the bridges looked like a new tactic in Moscow's campaign to disrupt life in Kyiv, according to The Associated Press. Earlier strikes had hit apartment blocks, supermarket warehouses, gas stations and data centers.abcnews

A city cut in two

The Kyiv City State Administration said the Southern and Paton bridges were closed in both directions after the overnight attack. The Metro Bridge was closed to traffic heading toward the right bank. Long lines of cars and buses sat stuck on main roads, and some commuters walked across instead.reuters+2

"I've been travelling for three hours … to get to work," Tetiana Osypenko, a 49-year-old seamstress, told AFP. Reuters witnesses said traffic was moving again on the bridges by about midday. The BBC reported that the Southern Bridge was hit again Friday evening, its fourth strike in two days. All metro and car traffic across it was then suspended.channelnewsasia+2

Drones first hit the Southern Bridge on Thursday, damaging its road surface, a support, a guardrail and a concrete shield around the metro line. Economic analyst Andriy Shevchishin estimated that about 500,000 people commute each day from the east bank to the west bank, where most jobs are.kyivindependent+1

After a crisis meeting of the city's defense council, Mayor Vitali Klitschko wrote on Telegram: "It's no longer possible to pretend that we can live now as we lived in peacetime. The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart".bbc+1

Deadly strike and Moscow's claim

Ukraine's State Emergency Service said the drone that hit the high-rise in the Darnytskyi district started a fire on the top floors. Two injured people were pulled out, and a body was found as crews fought the blaze. Ukraine's Air Force said Russia launched 108 attack drones overnight and that 88 were shot down or suppressed. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said almost half of them were jet-powered.united24media+3

Russia's Defense Ministry said it struck a combined road and rail bridge in Kyiv "facilitating the movement of troops and the logistical delivery of military supplies" to Ukrainian forces in Donbas. It also said it hit a substation in the Kyiv region, the port of Izmail and a cargo ship.aa+1

Escalation before winter

A senior Ukrainian official told Reuters the attacks on bridges, data centers and power sites appeared to follow an order Vladimir Putin gave last month to remove limits on Russia's air campaign. The Financial Times was first to report the order. Putin has said Russia is responding to Ukrainian strikes on its oil refineries, which he said had cost Russia about 1% of its GDP.reuters+1

Zelenskyy called for tougher sanctions on the foreign parts used in Russian drones. "Every Russian drone can actually be stopped right at the production line," he wrote on X. "What is needed is the political will of these countries".news.yahoo+1