Russia strikes Kyiv's Northern Bridge as attacks on Dnipro crossings enter third day

Russian forces launched a strike on the Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River in Kyiv in the morning hours of Saturday, 3 October, as Russia took aim at key bridges in the Ukrainian capital for the third straight day.

Explosions were reported in the city shortly after 6.30am amid reports of drones approaching the capital, the Kyiv Independent reported. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the bridge’s surface and its overhead trolleybus power lines were damaged in the attack, and movement across the bridge from the left to the right bank was halted. Emergency services were deployed to the scene.

Reuters reported that no casualties were confirmed. In the two days before the strike, the Southern Bridge was hit several times by Russian drones — the fourth such drone strike in two days, according to the Kyiv Independent — forcing temporary suspensions across it and other crossings.

Both bridges are main traffic arteries. More than a third of the capital’s three million residents lived on the east, “left”, bank of the Dnipro before Russia’s 2022 invasion, but the vast majority work on the western, “right”, bank, Reuters noted.

The strikes come a week after Russia launched what Ukraine described as the first salvo of an expected winter bombing campaign against power facilities supplying Kyiv. Moscow has previously denied systematically targeting civilians. Aviation expert Kostiantyn Kryvolap told the Kyiv Independent that destroying a bridge with a drone’s 50kg warhead is “practically impossible”, and that the attacks aim to halt traffic, interrupt logistics and exert psychological pressure.