KYIV, Ukraine — Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least six people and damaged Kyiv's Northern Bridge, suspending traffic and causing tailbacks for a third day in Moscow's latest effort to disrupt life in the Ukrainian capital.
The strike came after two days of Russian assaults forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv's six road bridges over the Dnipro River. Previously, Russia has hit apartment blocks, supermarket warehouses, gas stations and data centers, among other targets.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said Saturday it would continue to carry out “mass retaliatory strikes" on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, urging foreign nationals and diplomats to leave the country. It previously issued a similar warning in May.
Russia invaded its neighbor more than 4 ½ years ago, and there are no concrete signs that a peace settlement might be possible. Fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line snaking through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been virtually deadlocked in recent months.
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said the strike on the bridge damaged the road surface and trolleybus cables, forcing traffic to be suspended. He later said two people were wounded in the attack, one of whom was briefly hospitalized.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday confirmed it was behind the latest attack, claiming the bridge is used to “facilitate troop movements and the logistics of military cargo deliveries” for Ukraine’s armed forces.
Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the moment of impact as vehicles crossed the bridge, including footage purportedly recorded by a driver's dashcam.
Moldova expresses concern over the war spillover
The aerial war has intensified, with Kyiv striking Russia's oil industry and businesses while Moscow has menaced Ukrainian cities with hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones.
Moldovan President Maia Sandu said Saturday that the war is “dangerously reaching” her country, following a spate of airspace incursions.
“I condemn Russia’s attack on Ukraine this morning. Its war is dangerously reaching Moldova,” she said in a post on X, adding that five “Russian air attack weapons, including Banderol missiles and drones, violated our airspace and exploded on our soil.”
“Moscow is putting lives at risk across Europe and must be stopped,” she added.
Ukraine's air force said that Moscow overnight launched Banderol cruise missiles — low-cost, jet-powered loitering munitions that Russia uses to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses — at the Odesa region, which shares a long land border with Moldova. A loitering munition is designed to hover over an area, searching for targets, and detonate while crashing into them.
Russian, Ukrainian attacks leave 9 dead and scores wounded
Russia attacked Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, and nearby areas with drones and guided bombs on Friday and overnight, killing five people and wounding over 40, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov.
In nearby Izyum, Russian drone strikes wounded three people, according to the local military administration. It said a drone slammed into an industrial warehouse, while another damaged homes.
In Ukraine’s Odesa region, home to multiple Black Sea ports, a sailor was killed and three others wounded after Russian forces struck a civilian cargo ship on Saturday, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority reported. It said the ship was flying the Liberian flag.
In eastern Ukraine, in the Russian-occupied Luhansk region, Ukrainian drones killed two people and wounded two others, according to Kremlin-installed regional head Leonid Pasechkin. Pasechkin said the drones attacked a truck and passenger car driving along a highway, adding all victims were civilians.
In Russia, Ukrainian drone strikes killed a civilian and wounded two more in the Belgorod region, in villages just kilometers (miles) from the Ukrainian border, local authorities said Saturday.
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Associated Press writer Stephen McGrath in Coventry, England, contributed to this report.
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