Bridges falling, grids failing: Russia pounds Kyiv's lifelines as strikes kill at least eight across Ukraine

KYIV: Russia struck a second major bridge in the Ukrainian capital on Saturday, damaging Kyiv's Northern Bridge across the Dnipro river, as a wave of long-range attacks killed at least eight people and injured 81 across Ukraine in the past day. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Northern Bridge was hit during a Russian air attack on Saturday morning, damaging the road surface and overhead trolleybus cables. Emergency services were deployed to the scene, and traffic from the eastern bank to the western bank was suspended. No casualties were reported at the bridge. It is the second Dnipro crossing to come under attack in days. The Southern Bridge has been struck repeatedly by Russian drones since Thursday, forcing the temporary suspension of traffic across it and two other bridges. Three of Kyiv's six road bridges over the river are now fully or partially closed. Klitschko described the situation in the capital as "very dramatic", warning that the attacks were tearing Kyiv apart. Over a third of the capital's three million residents lived on the east, or "left", bank of the Dnipro before Russia's 2022 invasion, but the vast majority work on the western, or "right", bank where most government institutions and companies are located — making the bridges critical daily arteries. Russia's defence ministry claimed the bridge was being used to "facilitate troop movements and the logistics of military cargo deliveries" for Ukraine's armed forces. Moscow has previously denied systematically targeting civilians as part of its bombing campaigns. The heaviest toll came in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, where Russian glide bombs and drone attacks on Friday and overnight killed five people and wounded more than 40, according to regional governor Oleh Syniehubov. The strikes damaged private homes, an educational facility, office buildings, vehicles and power infrastructure. Russia also attacked a Liberian-flagged ship in Ukraine's Odesa region, killing one person and injuring three, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority said on Saturday, with 12 crew members evacuated. Ukraine struck back: one person was killed and two injured in a Ukrainian attack on Russia's Belgorod region, the TASS state news agency reported — a claim Reuters said it could not independently verify. The attacks come as memories of last winter, the worst of the war, weigh heavily on Kyiv's residents, after Russia launched last week what was seen in Ukraine as the first salvo of an expected winter bombing campaign against power facilities supplying the capital. The aerial war has intensified on both sides, with Kyiv striking Russia's oil industry while Moscow menaces Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones. Russia invaded its neighbour more than four-and-a-half years ago, and there are no concrete signs that a peace settlement might be possible.