Russia hits second Dnieper bridge in Kyiv within days, city gridlocked

Russia attacked another major bridge across the Dnieper river in Kyiv overnight. The target was the Northern Bridge, mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Only a few days earlier, Russian forces had attacked the Southern Bridge in the same Ukrainian capital.

Klitschko said the attack damaged the roadway on the bridge and the trolleybus lines. Traffic is therefore halted in one direction, from the eastern to the western bank of the city. According to him, there were no casualties.

Russian forces had already damaged the Southern Bridge, one of the main bridges across the Dnieper, which carries both the metro and road traffic, on Thursday morning. The city closed it for a while and then reopened it to traffic, but Moscow attacked it once more overnight. As a result, the bridge is now closed in both directions, and the city is suffering heavy traffic jams.

Since Friday, traffic has also been restricted on two other important bridges in Kyiv, although they were not targets of attacks. The Paton Bridge also has one-way traffic only. Ukrainian authorities have not yet explained why, as they have not so far confirmed an attack on that bridge.

A total of seven bridges connect the eastern and western parts of Kyiv, carrying rail, metro and road traffic. Before the Russian invasion in 2022, more than a third of Kyiv's three million residents lived on the eastern bank of the Dnieper, and most of them work on the western bank, where most state institutions and companies are also located.

Ukrainian media also reported overnight Russian attacks on the city of Dnipro in the east of the country, where a fire broke out in the business district. In the latest attacks on Kyiv, a 25-storey residential building was also damaged, and firefighters put out the fire that broke out after the attack. According to rescuers and local authorities, one person was killed and two more were injured. Two victims of Russian attacks were also reported from Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine, where another 28 people were injured, and more people may still be trapped under the rubble of residential buildings.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused the Russian military of destroying Ukrainian cities on the orders of President Vladimir Putin.

"From intelligence data and from some people in Putin's circle, we know that Putin said at the beginning of September that there are now no rules." (translated)

The Russian Ministry of Defence said it had used drones to attack road and rail traffic that it claimed was key to Ukrainian military logistics. According to the Ukrainian military, air defence shot down 88 of 108 Russian drones overnight, the Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform reports.

That leaves Kyiv with five bridges that Russia has not yet ticked off.