Russian attacks on bridges in Kyiv threaten to cause "logistical nightmare" and bring traffic across Dnipro river to standstill, - NYT
Russian strikes on bridges in Kyiv could force the authorities to close them indefinitely, which threatens to cause a ‘logistical nightmare’ for the capital and the whole of Ukraine.
Про це пише The New York Times, інформує Цензор.НЕТ.
The scale of the attacks
According to the publication, a new target for attacks has emerged in Russia. The NYT estimates that over the past three days, Russia has attacked the capital’s bridges six times: five strikes were directed at the Southern Bridge, and one at the Northern Bridge.
The structures are still standing, but the damage and the threat of further attacks have forced the local authorities to restrict or halt traffic on five of the capital’s six road bridges. This has seriously disrupted daily life in Ukraine’s largest city.
Many Kyiv residents commute daily between the predominantly residential eastern bank, home to around a million people, and the western bank, where most government offices and businesses are located.
Ukrainian officials and military experts believe that Russia’s strikes on bridges are part of a campaign to destroy the economy and undermine Ukraine’s ability to wage war. Russia is also attacking warehouses, trains, data centres, medical depots and steelworks, in addition to intensive attacks on the power grid, the publication reports.
Ukraine has withstood other such campaigns since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. However, a critical shortage of air defence systems, combined with Moscow’s growing arsenal, now makes the country more vulnerable to such attacks than ever before.
"The enemy is destroying Kyiv. It is no longer possible to pretend that we can live as we did in peacetime," said the city’s mayor, Vitalii Klitschko.
The risk of a ‘logistical nightmare’
Attacks on Kyiv’s bridges could disrupt daily life even further. At the same time, as the NYT points out, it is not easy to completely destroy the bridges, as they are large concrete structures that would need to be hit numerous times to be brought down.
However, such attacks could weaken the load-bearing structures of bridges and force the authorities to close them indefinitely to avoid the risk of collapse.
The result would be a logistical nightmare for Kyiv and the whole country. After all, food and equipment are transported across Kyiv’s bridges over the Dnipro. If alternative routes were closed, there would be little left.
There is one road bridge crossing the river to the north of Kyiv. The nearest one to the south is approximately 145 km away, which is about a 2.5-hour drive. Other bridges further downstream are situated closer to the front line, making them even more vulnerable to Russian attacks.
"In the early days of the war, Ukrainian officials considered blowing up bridges in Kyiv to halt Russian troops approaching the eastern bank. They refrained from doing so because counter-attacks ultimately succeeded in repelling the Russian forces advancing from the east," adds the NYT.
