Russia just started bombing Kyiv's bridges and the power grid could be next
1 hour ago · 2 October 2026Share
Pylon of the Southern Bridge in Kyiv. File photo. Xsandriel · CC BY-SA 4.0
Russia just attacked Kyiv overnight, and one person is dead.
Two others are hurt.
A strike hit a 25-storey block of flats in the city's Darnytskyi district. The Kyiv City Military Administration said at first it was still confirming the numbers. Then it put out a final count, citing the public broadcaster Suspilne: one dead, two injured.
And Russia hit the Southern Bridge again.
Vitali Klitschko, the Mayor of Kyiv, confirmed it. This is the second night in a row that bridge has been hit.
So three crossings are now shut. The Southern Bridge and the Paton Bridge are closed both ways. The Metro Bridge is closed heading to the right bank. Buses are being sent over the Darnytskyi and Podilskyi bridges instead.
Nobody has reported the Paton Bridge or the Metro Bridge actually being hit. They're closed as a precaution, not because they took damage.
Now, why the Southern Bridge matters. It's a cable-stayed crossing. It carries road traffic and Kyiv's metro trains over the Dnipro river, linking the east of the city to the west.
And this isn't the first time this week.
A day before this, two Russian drones hit near the bridge's supports. That damaged the road surface, a support, the guardrail, and the concrete shielding around the metro line. It was the first time since the full-scale invasion began, back in February 2022, that Russia had targeted one of Kyiv's bridges at all.
Here's the detail that matters. A subway train was crossing the bridge at the exact moment of that strike. The blast threw dust from the ventilation system into the carriages. Nobody on board was hurt. The train was pulled for inspection. A first check by the Kyiv City State Administration found no critical damage to the structure.
But Kyiv Post says that wasn't the end of it.
It reports the bridge was hit twice more after that. Once around 9:50pm local time that evening. Once again after midnight, heading into the next morning.
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Aerial photograph of Dniprovska Embankment and Sobornosti avenue intersection in Kyiv. File photo. Maksym Kozlenko · CC BY-SA 4.0
So the real count isn't two strikes over two nights. It's four. That extra detail comes from Kyiv Post alone, and the Kyiv Independent hasn't confirmed it.
And there was a warning before any of this happened.
Sergiy Beskrestnov advises Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's President, on drone warfare. He posted on Telegram that Russia is now using drones built to cut electricity pylons and steel bridge structures. He said quote "I believe that the enemy is planning to attack critical high-voltage power transmission lines".
That's a presidential adviser saying bridges and the power grid are the next targets. Not a one-off.
And it fits a pattern that's been building for days.
Two days ago, a large missile and drone attack on Kyiv killed four people and injured at least eight. It also damaged homes and energy infrastructure. Kyiv has said that attack was the start of a deliberate campaign to wreck the power grid before winter.
Other strikes this week came close to sensitive sites without causing real harm. A drone hit a school in the Solomianskyi district. Children and teachers were sheltering. Nobody was hurt. Another drone hit the grounds of Ukraine's Institute for Nuclear Research. It started a fire that was put out quickly. The test reactor there has been shut down since 2022, and it wasn't damaged.
And the numbers are climbing. Ukraine's air force says Russian drone strikes on the country hit 3,177 by the end of September. That's up from 2,850 in August.
Russia has not said it carried out the strike on the bridge or the residential building. It has made no statement about targeting Kyiv's bridges at all.
Kyiv Post also reports that air defences intercepted or brought down 88 of 108 drones launched at the capital overnight. Falling debris damaged windows on a non-residential building and several cars in the Holosiivskyi district. That number hasn't been independently confirmed by the Kyiv Independent either.
So here's what we still don't know. How many drones actually hit the bridge overnight. How much structural damage it's carrying now, after repeated strikes. And whether Russia is going to keep hitting Kyiv's bridges, night after night, as winter gets closer.
For now, the bridge that carries a subway line over the Dnipro has been hit four times in two days. And the people running the city still can't say if that's the start of something, or all of it.
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