Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has declared that the Ukrainian capital must be placed on a war footing as devastating Russian drone strikes target critical infrastructure, shutting down key bridges and paralyzing transit across the city. The mayor warned that the relative safety Kyiv once enjoyed compared to the front lines in the east has ended, forcing residents to confront the harsh realities of the grinding conflict.
"The capital is in a very dramatic situation," Klitschko posted on Telegram. "It's no longer possible to pretend that we can live now as we lived in peacetime."
His message came as the authorities shut one of Kyiv's main bridges and restricted movement on a second after another wave of deadly strikes by fast-moving, jet-powered drones. Specifically, authorities completely closed the Southern Bridge—one of eight crossings over the Dnipro River connecting the eastern and western halves of Kyiv—to all vehicles in both directions. The bridge has been struck repeatedly since Thursday, with further strikes confirmed by Klitschko on Friday afternoon. Meanwhile, the Paton Bridge further north was restricted to one-way traffic, though no strikes were reported there.
The closures triggered massive gridlock, leaving long lines of stationary cars and buses stranded on main roads. Many commuters were forced to seek alternative routes or travel on foot. Tetiana Osypenko, a 49-year-old seamstress whose bus was caught in the traffic jam, described the gridlock. "I've been travelling for three hours… to get to work," she said. "There's just no way to get there. Nothing. It's impossible to cross the bridges today." Osypenko added that previous disruptions to subway services during air raids had forced her to spend the night in a metro station near the Southern Bridge. Loss of earnings compounds the financial pressures caused by the war, she added. "You just spend the whole day feeling completely beaten down," she said.
Kyiv has faced escalating aerial bombardments in recent months, placing the city's estimated three million residents on near-constant alert. Air raid sirens sound almost round the clock, urging people to seek shelter. Repeated strikes on trains and petrol stations have disrupted the rail and road networks, while attacks on energy facilities threaten electricity and heating supplies as winter approaches. Beyond the capital, Russian shelling also struck residential areas in the eastern city of Kharkiv, killing two people and injuring dozens of others, according to Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov on Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ripping up the established rules of armed conflict by ordering massive attacks on civilian areas. Writing on social media, Zelensky cited intelligence and sources close to Putin to claim that the Russian leader declared last month that "no rules now" apply. "The Russians couldn't occupy us. So now they are doing massive attacks and massive killings," Zelensky said, reiterating comments he first made in an interview with the Financial Times. The Kremlin has rejected accusations of targeting civilians and made no immediate public response to Zelensky's latest claims.
In response to the threat of jet-powered drones, which are significantly harder to intercept, Zelensky urged Western allies to implement tougher sanctions to block the foreign components critical to Russian weapon manufacturing. "Every Russian drone can actually be stopped right at the production line. What is needed is the political will of these countries," Zelensky wrote. He also renewed his appeals for increased military assistance, particularly US-made Patriot missile interceptors.
Despite these appeals, Ukraine is actively developing its own defense capabilities. Zelensky announced on Thursday that Ukraine had deployed its new FP-7 tactical ballistic missile in combat for the first time, though he did not specify the target or location of the strike. He also revealed that Ukraine is currently testing five of its own domestic drone interceptors.
On the offensive front, Ukraine's military confirmed it launched strikes on Friday against an oil refinery in Volgograd and another facility in Samara, both located in southwest Russia, which allegedly supply fuel to Russian forces. Meanwhile, Kyiv dismissed reports that its fleet of F-16 fighter jets—crucial for countering jet-powered drones—could be grounded due to maintenance and parts delays. However, Zelensky acknowledged to the Financial Times that approximately half of Ukraine's F-16 fleet is currently undergoing lengthy maintenance periods in Europe.
