Intensified Russian strikes tear Kyiv apart, mayor warns

The mayor of Ukraine’s capital, Vitaliy Klitschko, said last Friday the city was in a very dramatic situation as Moscow intensified drone and missile attacks on Kabul’s critical infrastructure.

Klitschko added that the strikes were battering bridges, logistics hubs, housing and data centres, which has already caused internet outages across the city.

The mayor’s remarks followed a crisis meeting of Kyiv’s defence council, held after a Russian drone struck the Pivdennyi bridge overnight and hit it again, the fourth time in two days. The bridge is a main artery across the Dnipro River that links western and eastern parts of Kyiv.

All metro and automobile traffic has been suspended across the bridge, creating major delays. Restrictions also cover the city’s two other key bridges. The city’s estimated population of about three million relies heavily on the metro network.

One person was killed when a multi‑storey residential building was struck overnight, according to Ukraine’s state emergencies service DSNS.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin had decided that “there are no rules now” for attacking Ukraine. In a recent interview, Zelensky described the attacks as a strategy to force people to flee cities by targeting bridges, data centres, the internet, hospitals, schools and other essential services.

Putin, speaking at the Valdai forum, insisted that Russian strikes on Ukrainian oil infrastructure were a response to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries and ships in the Black Sea. He acknowledged that these attacks had cost Russia about 1% of its GDP.

The conflict, which escalated in 2022, has seen Russia increase attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, especially during winter months.