Intensified Russian strikes are tearing Kyiv apart, warns mayor

Intensified Russian drone and missile strikes are "tearing Kyiv apart", the mayor of Ukraine's capital has cautioned.

Key points

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky remarked Putin had decided in early September that "there are no rules now" when attacking Ukraine.
• Putin insisted that Russia's attacks on Ukrainian economic targets were a direct response to Ukraine's strikes on Russia's oil refineries and its ships in the Black Sea.
• Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ramping up attacks every winter since Putin introduced a full-scale invasion in 2022.
• The mayor was speaking just hours after Kyiv's key Pivdennyi (Southern) bridge was hit in an overnight Russian drone attack.
• In a published excerpt from his interview to the Financial Times, Zelensky remarked: The Russians have failed to occupy us.

Vitaliy Klitschko remarked the city was now in a "very dramatic situation" as Moscow was battering its "critical infrastructure, logistics, housing" and other key facilities.

After new Russian strikes on a key bridge that caused traffic chaos, he was speaking after Kyiv's defence council held a crisis session. The city's data centres have additionally been lately hit, resulting in internet outages.

President Vladimir Putin earlier remarked Russia was acting in response to Ukraine's strikes on Russian energy facilities, despite the fact that it was Moscow that had first rolled out such attacks.

"We're talking about survival, " Klitschko remarked at Friday's defence council gathering with Kyiv's top military, security, emergencies and police authorities.

Russia's aim was to "sow panic", he remarked, stressing that the capital would "prevail – but only through the joint efforts of those who love it and care for it".

Notably, the mayor was speaking just hours after Kyiv's key Pivdennyi (Southern) bridge was hit in an overnight Russian drone attack. On Friday evening it was struck again – the fourth time in two days.

Notably, the bridge is one of the main transport arteries throughout the Dnipro River dividing western and eastern parts of Kyiv.

All metro and automobile traffic is now suspended throughout the bridge, causing major delays throughout the city. Restrictions are additionally in place on Kyiv's two other key bridges.

Kyiv's current population is estimated to be regarding three million, and numerous residents rely heavily on the city's metro network.

One person was killed in the capital when a multi-storey residential building was hit overnight, Ukraine's state emergencies service DSNS remarked.

In a published excerpt from his interview to the Financial Times, Zelensky remarked: The Russians have failed to occupy us. So now they are carrying out massive attacks and mass killings.

"They want to destroy our bridges. Our data centres, the internet, mobile networks, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, universities – everything. They want individuals to flee their cities."

"Now from every direction we're receiving calls 'let's stop'. But they began it, " Putin stated after his Thursday's wide-ranging speech at the Valdai foreign policy forum.

Putin admitted Kyiv had "got some results" from its refinery attacks and Russia had lost regarding 1% of its GDP. Ukraine maintains it began attacking Russian oil infrastructure since it helps the Kremlin finance the war.

For now, intensified Russian strikes are tearing Kyiv apart, warns mayor remains the part of the story worth watching, and further updates are likely as more details are confirmed.