Russian strikes on vital infrastructure are “tearing Kyiv apart”, the city’s mayor has warned, after repeated attacks on a bridge connecting the capital’s eastern and western districts brought traffic to a halt.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of abandoning the basic rules of war by authorising large-scale attacks on civilian areas. The Kremlin has rejected the allegation.
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Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, the war has centred largely on ground battles in the east. Kyiv, by contrast, had remained largely removed from the worst destruction seen near the frontline.
But Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the capital could no longer behave as though it were living in peacetime.
“It is no longer possible to pretend that we can live as we did in peacetime.
“The enemy is tearing Kyiv apart,” he said.
His warning came after officials closed one of the capital’s major bridges and limited traffic on another following a fresh wave of deadly attacks involving fast, jet-powered drones.
A bridge connecting the east and west of Kyiv was struck several times yesterday and today
Cars and buses stood bumper to bumper across the city’s main roads as commuters searched for alternative routes, with some abandoning vehicles and continuing their journeys on foot.
“I’ve been travelling for three hours… just to get to work,” said Tetiana Osypenko, a 49-year-old resident whose bus was trapped in the congestion.
“There is simply no way to get there. Nothing. It is impossible to cross the bridges today,” she said.
Earlier interruptions to subway services during air raids had forced her to spend the night in a metro station near the Southern Bridge.
The gridlock followed the complete closure of the Southern Bridge to vehicles travelling in either direction. It is one of eight bridges spanning the Dnipro river and linking Kyiv’s eastern and western sides.
The Paton Bridge, farther north, remained open to traffic in one direction. There were no reports that it had been hit.
The latest Russian attacks killed one person and wounded at least two other people when a 25-storey residential building was hit in southeast Kyiv
Writing on X, Mr Zelensky accused the Russian president of saying last month that there were “no rules now”, citing unnamed intelligence and people close to Mr Putin.
“The Russians could not occupy us. So now they are carrying out massive attacks and mass killings,” Mr Zelensky said.
The Kremlin did not immediately issue a public response to the claim.
Daily disruption
Kyiv has come under increasingly frequent aerial bombardment in recent months, leaving the city under almost constant alert and placing mounting pressure on everyday life.
Air raid sirens warning of threats overhead sound through much of the day and night, telling the capital’s estimated three million residents to seek shelter.
Debris from a Russian drone strike on a apartment block in Kyiv
Repeated attacks on railway lines and petrol stations have disrupted transport by road and rail, while strikes on energy facilities have raised fears over electricity and heating supplies.
‘Political will’
Mr Zelensky has urged countries to impose tougher sanctions aimed at stopping Russia from producing its new jet-powered drones, which travel faster and are more difficult to intercept.
He said on social media that Russian production of the weapons was “critically dependent” on components from abroad.
“Every Russian drone can in fact be stopped at the production line. What is required is the political will of these countries,” he wrote.
Mr Zelensky has repeatedly appealed to Ukraine’s Western allies for additional military assistance, especially US-made Patriot missile interceptors.
Yesterday, he said Ukraine had deployed its FP-7 tactical ballistic missile in combat for the first time, but did not say where it had been used or what target it had struck.
He also said Ukraine was testing five domestically produced interceptors against drones.
South Korea threatens ‘measures’ against Ukraine in POW row
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has warned that Seoul could take unspecified measures against Ukraine unless Kyiv recognises a confidentiality agreement that South Korea says covered the transfer of two captured North Korean soldiers and offers an apology.
Mr Lee also voiced “grave regret” over what he described as Ukrainian comments suggesting that a military confrontation between North and South Korea was imminent, saying the remarks amounted to encouragement of war on the Korean peninsula.
“If the refusal to acknowledge the facts and issue a public apology continues, we will take additional measures,” Mr Lee said in a post on social media
The diplomatic dispute between Seoul and Kyiv began after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced at the United Nations General Assembly last month that Ukraine had handed two North Korean prisoners of war, captured while fighting for Russia, to South Korea.
South Korea later accused Kyiv of violating an agreement to keep the transfer confidential in order to protect the soldiers. Ukrainian officials denied that any such agreement had been made.
Kyiv’s embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mr Lee’s statement.
‘Neither side benefits from dispute’
Ukraine was attempting to repair relations with South Korea, Ukrainian media reported, citing Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
“I would not like to describe this as an incident. Let us call it a diplomatic misunderstanding,” Sybiha told journalists at an event, according to a report yesterday by news website nv.ua and other media outlets.
A senior South Korean Foreign Ministry official told reporters that the two countries’ foreign ministers had been discussing how Kyiv might respond to Seoul’s concerns, including the possibility of an apology, South Korean media reported.
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Mr Sybiha had been in direct contact to discuss the response Seoul wanted and what Ukraine could accept, while taking into account Ukraine’s wartime circumstances and the need to prevent either side from losing face, according to the reports.
The dispute has emerged at a delicate moment for Mr Lee’s administration, which has sought to ease tensions with North Korea while also managing the political repercussions of a recent landmine incident in the Demilitarised Zone separating the two Koreas.
