The process of installing nets to protect against drones has begun on one of the main bridges in Kiev over the Dnipro River, for the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, according to what journalists at Agence France-Presse reported on Tuesday.
Russian drones operating with jet engines, which are difficult to intercept, targeted two of the Ukrainian capital's eight bridges in recent days, causing massive traffic congestion.
Anti-drone nets, widely used in eastern and southern Ukraine near the front line, aim to protect transportation routes.
While these nets cover the streets of towns in other regions of Ukraine, especially in the eastern Donbass region, the nets examined by Agence France-Presse were installed on both sides of the northern bridge.
Since the start of the large-scale Russian invasion, Kiev has feared strikes targeting its bridges designated for cars and trains, which play an essential role in the capital's logistical operations.
In recent weeks, Russia has significantly intensified its attacks on the Ukrainian capital, targeting day and night transportation facilities, warehouses, residential buildings, and parking lots... These attacks expect an increasing number of civilian casualties, in light of a diplomatic stalemate.
The mayor of the capital, Vitali Klitschko, announced last week that his city, with a population of about three million people, is living in a “tragic situation” due to the continuing Russian strikes, accusing Moscow of seeking to “tear apart” Kiev.
Sweden announced today (Tuesday) that it will send the Patriot air defense system to Poland, to protect a logistical base designated for military and civil support to Ukraine, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Swedish Armed Forces said in a statement that it would send the system and about 100 soldiers to protect the NATO logistics center in Gieshov.
“This contribution aims to ensure military and civilian support for Ukraine,” Foreign Minister Maria Malmir Steinergaard said during a press conference.
The Swedish force is scheduled to arrive in early December, to take over the mission as a successor to the Dutch force.
Sweden abandoned the policy of military non-alignment that it had followed for two centuries after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and joined NATO in March 2024.
Last year, Sweden began sending Gripen fighters to participate in an NATO mission to monitor Polish airspace.
On Tuesday, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu accused the radical left of seeking to create chaos before the presidential elections, which will be held for the first time in April, through escalating student protests, according to what was reported by Agence France-Presse.
“The truth is that you deal with violence with some ambiguity, because violence is part of your political project aimed at plunging the country into chaos between now and the presidential elections,” Locorno said during a government interrogation session in the National Assembly. He added: “Sowing chaos, as you have been doing since the beginning of the high school students’ movement, is disgraceful, and we will not allow you to do that,” in response to a sharp attack launched against him by Mathilde Banault, head of the radical leftist “France Proud” party bloc.
