Russian airstrikes choke bridges across Dnipro River in Kyiv

Russian airstrikes forced the closure on Friday of two bridges over the ‌Dnipro ​River that link the two sides of the Ukrainian capital, as Moscow steps up its bombardment of infrastructure before winter. Long traffic jams formed in the morning and video footage posted online showed residents walking across a bridge that had been closed for cars and metro trains after it was struck multiple times on Thursday.

Russian drones on Thursday had smashed into the ‌Southern Bridge over the Dnipro and also hit a school, although pupils were unhurt as they were in a shelter at the time, officials said. Traffic across the Southern Bridge and part of the Paton Bridge, both of which are important arteries for residents of the southern part of Kyiv, was temporarily halted on Friday morning. Traffic on another bridge was also partially suspended.

Movement across the bridges was restored by around midday, Reuters witnesses said. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said he held a city security council meeting on Friday ‌to assess the risks, describing the situation in the city as "very dramatic". According to city authorities, more than a third of the capital's 3 million residents lived on the east, or "left", bank before Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but only ‌18% of jobs were located there.

The vast majority of Kyiv residents work on the western, or "right", bank where most government institutions and companies are located. Separately on Friday, a Russian drone strike killed one person and injured two others in the capital after a fire broke out on the upper floors of an apartment building, officials said.

In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-biggest, two people were killed and 28 wounded in a guided-bomb strike, according to the regional governor. NEW ORDERS FROM PUTIN

A senior Ukrainian official said the strikes on the bridges and other sensitive infrastructure - including data centres and power installations - appeared ⁠to be linked ​to an order by President Vladimir Putin last month to scrap ⁠constraints on Russia's air campaign. The order was first reported by the Financial Times.

Andriy Shevchishin, an economic analyst, said on Facebook that about 500,000 people commute from the left to the right bank each day. Residents of the left bank have also borne some of the worst power and heating outages every ⁠winter during the war as a result of Russian strikes on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. One district there, Troyeshchyna, was left without heating for over a week last winter in sub-zero temperatures.

Memories of last winter, the worst of the war, are prominent in residents' minds after Russia launched ​what was seen in Ukraine as the first salvo of an expected winter bombing campaign against power facilities supplying the capital. The Southern bridge, which was hit by a drone on Thursday, is also crucial for those commuting ⁠from towns and villages east of Kyiv.

Since the end of summer, Russia has been launching dozens of fast and relatively cheap jet-powered drones a day at Ukraine, whose defences have struggled against the new threat. Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram that its drones had hit a Kyiv bridge over the Dnipro, a ⁠power ​station in the surrounding region, the southwestern port of Izmail and a cargo vessel. All targets were used for military purposes, it said.

In Russia, Ukrainian drones targeted the Lukoil refinery in Volgograd and another oil facility in Samara region, Ukraine's military said. Ukraine's strikes on oil refineries in Russia, one of the world's leading oil producers, have cost Russia 1% of its gross domestic product, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said. Long lines have formed at Russian petrol stations.

UKRAINE SEEKS INTERCEPTOR MISSILES, AMMUNITION ⁠FOR JETS Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters on Thursday that Poland, Belgium and Spain had agreed to supply 20mm rounds for cannons on Ukraine's F-16 jet fighters, one of its most effective tools for the fight against the new, faster ⁠drones.

He said Kyiv was anticipating a possible agreement on the supply ⁠of "several million" rounds of this ammunition in the near future, but did not specify from whom. Sybiha also said Ukraine needed at least 300 Patriot interceptor missiles - the only weapon it can reliably use to bring down Russia's ballistic missiles - to have a minimum level of protection for the winter period.

Moscow is thought to be making 120 to 140 ballistic missiles each ‌month, he said, with 600 already in ‌its stocks.