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Traffic was gridlocked in Kyiv on Friday after the one of the city’s main bridges was closed and restrictions placed on others after another wave of Russian drone strikes.
Reporters in the city saw long queues of stationary cars and buses on main roads in the Ukrainian capital as commuters sought alternative routes.
Traffic built up due to the complete closure to traffic in both directions on the Southern Bridge, one of eight connecting the east and west of Kyiv over the Dnipro River.
The Paton Bridge, further north, was open only one way, city mayor Vitali Klitschko said, but there were no reports that it had been hit.
Russian drones struck the support structures of the Southern Bridge on Thursday. The crossing was temporarily closed while a structural assessment was made.
It reopened to traffic and Metro train services soon afterwards but suffered repeated drone strikes on Thursday night and early on Friday, Klitschko said.
The second on Thursday night damaged a bridge pier, the road surface and a protective concrete barrier along the subway line, he added.
Ukraine has long feared an attack on its major transportation bridges since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Kyiv has been increasingly under aerial bombardment from Russian drones and missiles in recent months, putting the city on near-constant alert and disrupting daily life.
Air raid sirens warning of approaching threats in the skies sound almost round the clock, urging the city’s estimated 3 million people to seek shelter.
Repeated strikes on trains and petrol stations have already hit the rail and road networks.
Political will
The latest Russian attacks killed one person and wounded at least two other people when a 25-storey residential building was hit in southeast Kyiv.
The victim was found as firefighters put out a blaze caused by the blast.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged countries to tighten sanctions to prevent Russia from manufacturing its new jet-powered drones, faster and harder to intercept than previous models, which he said were “critically dependent” on foreign components.
“Every Russian drone can actually be stopped right at the production line,” he wrote on social media on Friday. “What is needed is the political will of these countries.”
“If the Kremlin has chosen more strikes, sanctions must work and must be strengthened.”
Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on Ukraine’s Western allies for more military support, particularly for US-made Patriot missile interceptors.
On Thursday evening, he said Ukraine had used its FP-7 tactical ballistic missile in combat for the first time, without disclosing where or what it had been used against.
Additional sources • AFP