For the fourth day in a row, a Russian attack targeted a bridge in kyiv on Sunday October 4 while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz visited the Ukrainian capital the same day to provide his support and a new promise of financial aid.
Two of the eight bridges over the Dnieper in kyiv have been targeted in recent days by Russian jet drones, which are difficult to intercept, causing huge traffic jams. “Impact with the roadway on the North Bridge. Emergency services are on site,” Mayor Vitaly Klitschko announced on Telegram messaging in the morning. Shortly before, Ukrainian authorities had issued an alert to drones heading towards the capital.
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Friedrich Merz arrived in kyiv in the morning, saying in a statement that he had come because “Ukraine needs all our support in the coming weeks.” “If Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us,” he said.
Anti-aircraft sirens sounded several times and an AFP journalist heard distant explosions when the German Chancellor went alongside President Volodymyr Zelensky to the site of the kyiv Academy of Sciences, recently damaged by a Russian attack.
Volodymyr Zelensky described his talks with Friedrich Merz as “productive”, who offered new financial aid, a “comprehensive program worth more than 1.3 billion euros” including armaments and support for the Ukrainian energy sector before a winter which promises to be difficult.
“These barbaric attacks against the Ukrainian civilian population must stop”
“This is where we can see the full absurdity of this war,” declared the German chancellor alongside the Ukrainian president, adding: “These barbaric attacks against the Ukrainian civilian population must stop.” Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that the capital is experiencing “a terrible situation, terrible nights and days”. “It is essential that Ukraine is not left alone in the face of this terror,” he added in a message on Telegram.
Ukraine fears the coming of winter because the Russian military may be able to inflict significant damage on power plants, as in 2025, when millions of people were plunged into darkness and cold at times by freezing temperatures.
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Russia has also announced that it will “intensify” its strikes “against military and industrial installations, as well as against related infrastructure” in Ukraine, in response to statements by Volodmyr Zelensky promising more attacks against Russian refineries.
Unpopular in his country, Friedrich Merz arrives in Ukraine after bitter regional electoral defeats against the far-right AfD party, which advocates a halt to aid to kyiv and a normalization of relations with Moscow. This party comes first in voting intentions at the national level. His visit also comes the day after a call from Russia suggesting diplomats and foreigners in kyiv to leave the city, before new “massive retaliatory strikes” against “military targets in kyiv and other Ukrainian cities”.
kyiv “ransacked”
Volodymyr Zelensky announced later Sunday that the United States plans to hold trilateral talks with Russian and Ukrainian representatives in late October. “The American side is currently in contact with Ukraine and Russia and offers to somehow organize a meeting at the technical level, in a trilateral format, by the end of October,” he said at a press conference.
The head of Indian diplomacy, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, for his part indicated that his country was seeking to play an increased role as mediator between Russia and Ukraine to end the war. “We have been advocating for this for several years, but in recent months we have become a little more involved, beyond just advocacy, and we have had discussions with Russia and Ukraine on this,” he said at a meeting of the Munich Security Conference, which was being held in New Delhi.
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kyiv has been particularly targeted in recent weeks by almost daily waves of drones, at a time when Ukraine is facing a lack of anti-aircraft resources and a gigantic budget deficit that the Europeans are struggling to fill.
Its mayor Vitaly Klitschko on Friday described the situation in the capital as “extremely dramatic” and estimated that Moscow was in the process of “ransacking” the city by systematically attacking its infrastructure and logistics.
Ukraine and Russia have significantly ramped up their long-range strikes in recent months, targeting an increasing number of civilian sites and causing ever more casualties.
Russia’s strikes have devastated Ukraine’s metallurgical sector and halted much of its agricultural exports across the Black Sea, dealing a blow to the economy. Ukraine, for its part, is targeting refineries and oil depots in Russia, which caused a fuel crisis this summer, or even warehouses of e-commerce giants.
With AFP
