In brief
Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has warned that Kyiv is in a “very dramatic situation” as Russian forces intensify drone and missile strikes. The city’s critical infrastructure, including its main southern bridge, a data centre, and housing, has been repeatedly targeted, causing significant traffic disruptions and internet outages. Despite Russian claims that these attacks are retaliation for Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities, Kyiv’s leadership stresses that Moscow was the initiator of the conflict. The ongoing bombardment aims to sow panic and force residents to flee, while Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky has openly condemned Russia’s attacks on civilian infrastructure.
Intensified Russian drone and missile strikes are tearing Kyiv apart, the city’s mayor Vitaliy Klitschko warned after a session of the defence council.
He described the capital as being in a “very dramatic situation” with Moscow’s assault targeting critical infrastructure, logistics, housing and other key facilities.
Notably, Kyiv’s Pivdennyi (Southern) bridge was struck again overnight – the fourth time in two days – plunging a major transport artery between the city’s western and eastern halves into chaos. All metro and automobile traffic across the bridge has been suspended, and restrictions now cover the city’s other two key bridges.
Data centres have also been hit, resulting in widespread internet outages that have cut communication for residents who rely heavily on the metro network for daily travel.
President Vladimir Putin has portrayed the attacks as a response to Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, yet Ukraine maintains that Moscow was the first to launch a full‑scale invasion in 2022.
Zelensky lamented that Russia’s intent is to destroy bridges, data centres, mobile networks, hospitals, kindergartens, schools and universities – forcing people to flee their homes. “They want people to leave their cities,” he said.
Russia’s strategy has escalated each winter, with increased drone and missile strikes aimed at crippling Ukrainian civilian and economic infrastructure.
