Russian drones hit Kyiv's Southern Bridge, disrupting metro line

Two Russian drones struck near the supports of Kyiv's Southern Bridge on Thursday, disrupting a key metro line between the city's eastern and western banks, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The attack happened at around 11:30 local time as cars and a metro train continued to cross the bridge.

Dust entered the train's carriages through the ventilation system after the blast, but neither passengers nor the driver were hurt, and the train and its windows were undamaged, the Kyiv City State Administration said. The train was sent to a depot for inspection.

Traffic across the bridge was halted while emergency crews inspected the structure. It resumed at 2:25pm local time after a preliminary inspection found no critical damage, the city administration said.

The Southern Bridge, completed in the late 1990s, is Kyiv's tallest and one of its most important crossings of the Dnipro river, carrying a motorway link toward Boryspil international airport and the green line of the city's metro, which moves hundreds of thousands of people between the left-bank residential districts and the city centre daily. It also carries a high-pressure gas pipeline and power cables, and has been under special protection since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.

The strike came hours after a Russian drone hit a school in Kyiv's Solomianskyi district, sparking a fire; pupils and staff were in a shelter and no one was hurt, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. Drones also struck a non-residential complex in the Pecherskyi district and warehouses in Solomianskyi, local authorities said. A data centre at the Parkovy congress and exhibition centre in Pecherskyi suffered what its operator called critical damage and has ceased operations entirely, saying services could not be restored there.

Air-raid alerts sounded six times in Kyiv by 12:30 local time, with explosions heard in several districts, including the central Pecherskyi district. Russian attacks elsewhere in Ukraine overnight killed at least six people and injured 38 others across the country, separate from the Kyiv strikes.

A passenger on the train said he spotted one of the drones just before impact and shouted a warning, Hungarian outlet Telex reported. Reports identified the devices as Geran-5 drones, an upgraded Russian-built version of the Iranian-designed Shahed, though this has not been officially confirmed.