(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Seungwook Kim = As Russia focuses its attacks on bridges in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine, the capital's transportation network is greatly threatened.
According to foreign news reports on the 3rd (local time), the Russian military attacked the Dnipro River bridge in Kiev at least six times with drones over the past three days.
A bridge in southern Kiiu was hit three times on the 1st, and the same bridge was attacked twice on the 2nd. This morning, even the northern bridge in Kiiu was attacked by air.
None of the bridges attacked collapsed, but damage and concerns of further damage prompted authorities to block or severely restrict vehicle and public transport traffic on five of Kiiu's six road bridges.
In Kiiu, where the city is divided into two across the Dnipro River, about 1 million residents commute from the eastern riverside, where they live, to the western riverbank, where government agencies and businesses are concentrated.
It is said that the daily life of the entire city has virtually come to a standstill due to this control.
The New York Times explained that Russia's recent attack on the bridge was part of a large-scale operation to destroy key infrastructure in Ukraine's rear, away from the front line.
According to reports, in addition to existing power grid attacks, the Russian military has significantly increased its target targets in recent weeks to include logistics warehouses, railroads, data centers, medical warehouses, and steel mills.
Ukrainian authorities and military experts diagnosed that Russia's recent airstrikes were aimed at shaking up the daily lives of the Ukrainian people, breaking their will to resist, and at the same time destroying the economy.
Ukraine has withstood such airstrikes since the start of the war in February 2022, but the recent lack of air defense missiles combined with Russia's weapons expansion has left it more vulnerable than ever.
Chiiu Mayor Vitaly Klitschko expressed a sense of crisis, saying, "The enemy is destroying Chiiu," and "It is no longer possible to pretend that we can live as in peacetime."
In fact, drones have been flying around Kiiu city center all day recently, and there are constant air raid warnings.
The NYT reported that on the 28th of last month, a drone crashed into a university building located in the center of the city, causing a fire, completely shattering the tranquility of the capital city, which was previously considered to be relatively safer than other areas.
Experts believe that it will not be easy for Russia to completely destroy the large bridge, which is a thick concrete structure, but that if the substructure is weakened by continuous attacks, Ukrainian authorities will have no choice but to choose a long-term blockade to avoid the risk of collapse.
If the bridges in Kiev are completely blocked, the logistics of the entire Ukraine will be fatally damaged.
There is only one bridge to the north of Kiiu, and the closest bridge to the south is about 90km away. Using other bridges located downstream requires a large detour, and because it is close to the southern front, there is a high risk of being defenselessly exposed to Russian military attacks.
The NYT diagnosed, โUkraine, which had even considered directly blowing up the Kiev bridges in the early stages of the war to prevent the Russian army from advancing on the capital, now faces the task of protecting the capitalโs veins from Russiaโs destructive airstrikes.โ
