The key facts
- Traffic on the Southern Bridge is closed after the October 27 damage; metro infrastructure was affected
- Analyst Oleksiy Kush estimated the left bank's population at more than a million people and said the authorities were unprepared
- The Russian Defense Ministry claimed the bridge was used to transport military cargo
Damage to the Southern Bridge and its consequences
Fresh damage to the Southern Bridge in Kyiv was recorded on October 27. City mayor Vitali Klitschko reported a strike on the structure and damage to metro infrastructure, after which car traffic across the bridge was closed and public transport routes had to be rerouted. This is reported by Life.ru.
Assessment of the transport situation
Ukrainian financial analyst Oleksiy Kush said on the air of Novosti.Live that Kyiv's left bank, where, by his estimate, more than a million people live, is largely cut off from the right bank, and noted a 'complete unpreparedness for this situation.' According to him, after the Southern Bridge was damaged, a significant part of the traffic flow shifted to the Darnytskyi crossing, leading to serious congestion and making it harder for residents to move between the two halves of the city. Kush criticized the city authorities for the lack of backup transport routes across the Dnipro and assessed the capital's transport infrastructure as unprepared for large-scale restrictions on the main crossings.
Military logistics and the parties' positions
The Russian Defense Ministry previously stated that the strike on the Southern Bridge was carried out by Russian forces, and that, according to the ministry, the bridge was used to transport military cargo. Earlier, Life.ru also cited the assessment of Aleksey Muratov, head of the regional executive committee of United Russia in the DNR: according to him, the damage to the bridge significantly complicated the transfer of reserves and military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces between the banks of the Dnipro, and that to disrupt military logistics it is not necessary to completely destroy a crossing — it is enough to make it impassable. These assessments come from the Russian side and the persons it named; the publication contains no independent confirmation of their conclusions.
