Russia may be hiding signal repeaters inside Kyiv to help drones evade Ukraine's electronic warfare defenses using mesh networking, a weapons expert says.

A major bridge in Kyiv has been targeted by Russian strikes for the second day in a row, coinciding with a surprise visit from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's to the city. The Pivnichnyi (Northern) Bridge was hit on Sunday morning, a day after it was first struck by drones in an attack that damaged the road surface and led to traffic disruption. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Sunday's strike had also damaged a heating main, adding that there would be a temporary lack of hot water in the north-eastern Desnyanskyi district as a result. Major bridges have been targeted in Kyiv over the past four days as Moscow ramps up attacks on critical infrastructure in the capital. Unverified video footage of Sunday's strike shows cars moving on the bridge as a drone crashes into it before exploding, creating a ball of fire.

Image caption, The Northern Bridge is the second major bridge to be targeted by Russia in recent days, Kyiv's mayor said A Russian strike has hit a second major bridge in Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said, as Russia ramps up attacks on critical infrastructure in the Ukrainian capital. The attack on Saturday morning damaged the road surface and trolleybus overhead wires on the Northern Bridge, Klitschko said. The strike comes after another key bridge in the city, Southern Bridge, has been targeted multiple times by Russian drones since Thursday, with Klitschko earlier warning that such attacks were tearing Kyiv apart. The two bridges link the eastern and western parts of the capital and had not been hit before Thursday, signalling a new stage in Moscow's attacks. Image caption, In the Thursday attack, a Russian drone hit cables of Kyiv's Pivdennyi bridge Writing on Telegram on Saturday, Klitschko said: Hitting the North Bridge.

Image caption, All metro and automobile traffic is now suspended across Kyiv's Pivdennyi bridge Intensified Russian drone and missile strikes are tearing Kyiv apart, the mayor of Ukraine's capital has warned. Vitaliy Klitschko said the city was now in a very dramatic situation as Moscow was battering its critical infrastructure, logistics, housing and other key facilities. He was speaking after Kyiv's defence council held a crisis meeting, following new Russian strikes on a key bridge that caused traffic chaos. The city's data centres have also been recently hit, resulting in internet outages. President Vladimir Putin earlier said Russia was acting in response to Ukraine's strikes on Russian energy facilities, despite the fact that it was Moscow that had first launched such attacks.

Is the war entering a new phase? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called on allies to tighten sanctions against Russia after a wave of strikes triggered gridlock across Kyiv. Traffic chaos gripped the Ukrainian capital on Friday after Russian drone attacks overnight closed key bridges. Zelenskyy called for allies to act to prevent Moscow from sourcing components for its arsenal as Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine face attacks around the clock. The Metro Bridge was closed in the direction of Kyiv's right bank, the city administration said.

Two Russian drones have hit one of Kyiv's main bridges, bringing public transport in the Ukrainian capital to a halt and signalling a new stage in Moscow's attacks. The Pivdennyi or Southern bridge came under fire as a metro train was travelling across. Passengers described how dust from a blast wave entered their carriage through the ventilation system. The Pivdennyi bridge is one of the main arteries across the Dnipro river dividing western and eastern Kyiv. Kyiv's bridges had not been hit before Thursday's strikes - and despite a dramatic explosion close to a main support section, city authorities said preliminary checks did not find any critical damage to the structure.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russian drone hits school in Ukraine's Kyiv as Moscow presses air assault Share Russian drone hits school in Ukraine's Kyiv as Moscow presses air assault on social media A Russian drone has struck a school in Kyiv, officials said, as the Ukrainian capital endured another day of bombardment. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said children and staff were hiding in shelters when the drone hit and there were no immediate reports of casualties during the attack on Thursday. In a statement on Thursday, Ukraine's nuclear safety watchdog said a Russian drone hit the grounds of a nuclear research facility in Kyiv on Wednesday, causing a fire but leaving the facility's test reactor undamaged. "The fire that resulted from the attack was quickly extinguished. There were no injuries," the regulator said in a statement, adding that the reactor was not damaged and had been shut down since 2022.

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has accused Russia of "sabotage" following an August arson attack on a defence company, Milrem Robotics, a claim the Kremlin rejected. "We can conclude with certainty that the arson attack in Tallinn was an act of sabotage ordered by the special services of the Russian Federation," Tsahkna wrote on X on Tuesday. "This act of sabotage is part of Russia's broader campaign across Europe, aimed at intimidating us and weakening our support for Ukraine," he wrote. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected the allegation. "Such statements are baseless, ill-considered, have absolutely no relation to reality, and lack any form of reasoning. Consequently, we cannot and will not take such statements seriously," he told reporters.

Is the war entering a new phase? Russia's attacks on Ukraine kill six after Zelenskyy-Trump talks Share Russia's attacks on Ukraine kill six after Zelenskyy-Trump talks on social media At least two people have been killed in Ukraine's capital Kyiv, along with four others in the front-line Donetsk region, as Russia pounds the country just hours after US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed peace efforts. The rare daytime attack on Kyiv was carried out with faster and high-flying jet drones that are harder to intercept and lasted for hours from the morning into early afternoon on Wednesday, killing two and injuring more than 30 others, according to local officials. "Russia continues to turn civilian and critical infrastructure into targets: pharmaceutical facilities, gas stations, railways, communications infrastructure, and shopping malls," he said on X. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a Russian drone hit a nine-storey non-residential building in his city, as well as a business centre and warehouses. Ukrainian oil company Ukrnafta said Russia hit one of its petrol stations in the capital, the sixth such facility attacked in recent weeks.

Is the war entering a new phase? Polls have closed in Russia's first wartime parliamentary elections, with the ruling United Russia party on course to win the tightly controlled vote. The Kremlin wants the elections, the first parliamentary vote since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, to showcase popular support for the war and legitimise its action. The drone strikes on Sunday killed at least three people in the Moscow region and two more in the Russian-held part of Ukraine's Kherson region, including an election official, according to the region's governor and the election commission. Russian authorities also reported attacks on the country's electronic voting systems and communication lines during the polls, but said the electoral process was mostly smooth.