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Russian drone and missile attacks are “tearing Kyiv apart”, the city’s mayor has warned, as strikes on infrastructure caused transport disruption and internet outages. The BBC reported that Vitaliy Klitschko described the capital’s situation as “very dramatic”.
Klitschko spoke at a crisis meeting of Kyiv’s defence council on Friday, attended by senior military, security, emergency and police officials. “We’re talking about survival,” he said, adding that Russia was targeting “critical infrastructure, logistics, housing” and other key facilities.
Attacks disrupt Kyiv transport
The mayor’s comments came hours after a Russian drone attack hit the Pivdennyi, or Southern, bridge overnight. The bridge was struck again on Friday evening, the fourth time in two days.
The crossing is one of the main transport links over the Dnipro River between western and eastern Kyiv. Metro and vehicle traffic across it has been suspended, causing major delays, while restrictions have also been imposed on the city’s two other key bridges.
Kyiv has an estimated population of about three million, many of whom rely heavily on the metro. The city’s data centres have also recently been hit, leading to internet outages.
Ukraine’s state emergency service, DSNS, said one person was killed overnight when a multi-storey residential building was hit.
Leaders trade claims over strikes
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian President Vladimir Putin had decided in early September that “there are no rules now” in attacks on Ukraine. In an excerpt from an interview published by the Financial Times, Zelensky said Russia was carrying out mass attacks after failing to occupy the country, targeting bridges, data centres, communications networks, hospitals and educational institutions.
Putin said Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian economic targets were a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries and ships in the Black Sea. Speaking after a Thursday address at the Valdai foreign policy forum, he said: “Now from every direction we’re receiving calls ‘let’s stop’. But they started it.”
Putin acknowledged that Ukrainian attacks on refineries had achieved “some results” and said Russia had lost about 1% of its GDP. Ukraine says it began targeting Russian oil infrastructure because it helps the Kremlin finance the war.
Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, intensifying attacks each winter since launching its full-scale invasion in 2022. Klitschko said Moscow aimed to “sow panic” but added that Kyiv would “prevail” through the joint efforts of people who care for the city.
