Russia yesterday said it would continue to carry out targeted retaliatory strikes on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities and urged foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the capital.
In a statement, the Russian foreign ministry said that ‘in response to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ terrorist acts against the civilian population and civilian infrastructure of our country, the armed forces of the Russian Federation are continuing to systematically carry out targeted strikes on military facilities in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities’.
“The Russian ministry of foreign affairs once again warns foreign nationals, including diplomatic mission staff, against staying in Ukraine or travelling to its territory.
“Responsibility for any adverse consequences lies entirely with those who ignore this warning,” the ministry said.
Russia has recently escalated strikes on infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital. The intensifying campaign has upended life for the capital’s three million residents ahead of the bitter winter months.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said this week that Ukraine was paying the price for its own attacks on Russia and would continue to do so as Moscow’s forces systematically strike different targets there.
Both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks on the other side’s grain vessels in the Black Sea in recent months, while Russian oil refineries and other enterprises continue to come under Ukrainian shelling and Ukrainian drones kill civilians in Russian border regions.
Both sides deny targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure.
A Russian strike hit a second major bridge in Kyiv, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.
The attack in the morning injured two people, and damaged the road surface and overhead trolleybus wires on the Pivnichnyi (Northern) Bridge, Klitschko said, causing traffic jams.
It comes after the Pivdennyi (Southern) Bridge was hit multiple times by Russian drones last week, with Klitschko warning that ‘the enemy is tearing Kyiv apart’.
The two Kyiv bridges across the Dnipro River link the western and eastern parts of the capital and had not been hit before Thursday.
The Russian strikes have severed road, rail and trolleybus links across the wide river. The ongoing drone threat means restrictions on other routes, bringing traffic jams to the city’s roads for a second day – though Friday’s gridlock has not been repeated to the same level.
Many of the city’s residents rely on the metro to travel across the city every day. The fear is this new Russian tactic will result in sustained attacks which could effectively cut the city in two.
Writing on Telegram, Klitschko said ‘emergency services are on their way’ after the Pivnichnyi Bridge was hit.
“Traffic on the bridge from the left to the right bank is currently blocked,” he added.
Earlier attacks on the Pivdennyi Bridge prompted Kyiv’s defence council to hold a crisis meeting on Friday.
Klitschko warned afterwards that the city was now in a ‘very dramatic situation’.
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