Russian strikes hit Kyiv’s Southern Bridge again: metro traffic suspended, Paton Bridge also closed

Russian air strikes hit Kyiv’s Southern Bridge again on Friday morning, Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced on Telegram, marking the second straight day of attacks on one of the Ukrainian capital’s most strategic bridges.

Klitschko said traffic across the bridge and another bridge, the Paton, was closed in both directions, while authorities redirected transport to alternative routes. According to him, a fire broke out on the upper floors of a residential building in Kyiv, in addition to damage in another part of the city and on the Southern Bridge.

This was the second attack within 24 hours on the bridge, after on Thursday, October 1, two Russian drones hit its supporting section for the first time — the first attack ever on one of Kyiv’s bridges, as Reuters reports. Metro services and surface public transport across the bridge stopped immediately; footage shared online showed an explosion near a cable column of the bridge. Specialists inspected the bridge after the first strike and the initial inspection found no critical structural damage.

The strikes mark a new escalation after weeks of almost uninterrupted bombardment of Kyiv, with jet-powered drones that are harder to shoot down. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s adviser Sergiy “Flash” Beskrestnov warned that Russia is using drones designed specifically to cut transmission lines and the steel structures of bridges. On Thursday, Russian drones also hit a school in Kyiv — the pupils were in a shelter and there were no injuries — while Wednesday’s bombardment was described by Ukrainian officials as the start of the winter campaign against the country’s energy grid.

Russia denies attacking civilian targets. But Ukrainian analyst Vadym Denysenko called the strike on the bridges a major escalation, as Kyiv’s bridges had until now been considered a “red line” that Moscow had not crossed.