Russian Strikes Kill Six Across Ukraine; Kyiv Bridge Damaged, Moldova Reports Airspace Breach

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least six people and damaged a bridge in the capital, Kyiv, while Moldova said Russian missiles and drones had violated its airspace and exploded on its territory — an indication that the effects of the war are spreading beyond Ukraine's borders.

The strike on Kyiv's Northern Bridge damaged the road surface and trolleybus cables, forcing traffic to be suspended, Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said. No casualties were reported at the bridge itself. The attack came after two days of Russian strikes had forced the full or partial closure of three of Kyiv's six road bridges across the Dnipro River.

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday that it was responsible for the bridge attack, stating that the crossing is used to "facilitate troop movements and the logistics of military cargo deliveries" for Ukraine's armed forces. That claim could not be independently verified. Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the moment of impact as vehicles crossed the bridge, including footage said to have been recorded by a driver's dashcam. Such clips could not be independently verified.

The bridge strikes are part of a wider pattern. Russia has previously hit apartment blocks, supermarket warehouses, petrol stations and data centres in Ukraine, among other targets.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said on Saturday that the war is "dangerously reaching" her country, after a series 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 Moscow launched Banderol cruise missiles overnight at the Odesa region, which shares a long land border with Moldova. Banderol missiles are low-cost, jet-powered loitering munitions that Russia uses to overwhelm Ukrainian air defences. A loitering munition is designed to hover over an area, search for targets, and detonate while crashing into them.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, Russian drones and guided bombs struck the city and nearby areas on Friday and overnight, killing five people and wounding more than 40, according to regional head Oleh Syniehubov. In nearby Izyum, Russian drone strikes wounded three people, the local military administration said. A drone struck an industrial warehouse, while another damaged homes, it said.

In Ukraine's Odesa region, home to several Black Sea ports, a sailor was killed and three others wounded when Russian forces struck a civilian cargo ship flying the Liberian flag, the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority reported.

There were also reports of Ukrainian strikes inside Russia and in Russian-held territory. In the Kaluga region of western Russia, Ukrainian drones damaged apartment buildings, regional governor Vladislav Shapsha said. He did not immediately give casualty figures but said 13 drones were shot down over the region overnight.

In Russia's Belgorod region, close to the Ukrainian border, local authorities said Ukrainian drone strikes killed one civilian and wounded two others. In the Russian-occupied Luhansk region of eastern Ukraine, Russian-installed regional head Leonid Pasechkin said Ukrainian drones killed two people and wounded two others. He said the drones attacked a truck and a passenger car travelling along a highway and that all the victims were civilians. These accounts could not be independently verified.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Fighting along the roughly 1,250-kilometre front line that runs through northern, eastern and southern Ukraine has been largely deadlocked in recent months, and there are no concrete signs that a peace settlement is imminent.

The aerial war has intensified in recent weeks. Ukraine has struck Russia's oil industry and businesses, while Moscow has threatened Ukrainian cities with hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones.