Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned his European partners that he expects Russia to launch sustained attacks on its bridges over the Dnipro River in a bid to cut the country in two.
Ukraine’s president made the warning during a recent call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, saying Moscow wants to leave the eastern half of the country bordering Russia isolated from the western half bordering the EU, according to people briefed on the conversation.
Zelensky and von der Leyen, in statements released Monday, also said they had coordinated their positions ahead of peace talks between kyiv, Moscow, U.S. and European officials on Tuesday and Wednesday in Abu Dhabi.
Zelensky reiterated that warning in his speech Monday evening, saying he had discussed with von der Leyen “in detail the challenges posed by the Russian operation against our bridges and our power grid.”
He added: “Russia is trying to divide Ukraine along the Dnipro River and make life as difficult as possible for the population, our cities and villages. »
The Dnipro River divides Ukraine from north to south, passing through kyiv and the southeastern cities of Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson before reaching the Black Sea. To the south, the country’s main waterway provides a natural front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces.
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Parts of kyiv experienced hours-long power outages and traffic jams, underscoring growing pressure on Ukraine’s energy, transportation and critical infrastructure as Russia further steps up its campaign against the country’s civilian and military supply networks.
“I spoke to Ursula about the challenges and we agreed that the European Union would activate a special emergency mechanism… to quickly provide Ukraine with funds for what is most needed at the moment,” Zelenskyy said in a statement Monday.
“At present, many of our cities and communities are facing a very difficult situation with electricity, water and heat supplies due to Russian strikes,” he said, adding that the situation was “particularly difficult in kyiv, the Dnipro, Sumy and Donetsk regions, as well as Kherson.”
A senior Ukrainian official said the Russian attack plan aimed not only to cut Ukraine in two, but also to cut off electricity distribution from the west of the country to the east, which would leave millions of people in the dark in the dead of winter.
Von der Leyen said on Monday that she had “reiterated her support for (Zelensky’s) call for a ceasefire covering food and energy infrastructure” ahead of the first round of trilateral peace talks between kyiv, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi which begins on Tuesday. Negotiations had been suspended since late February, when the Trump administration launched its war against Iran.
Since October, Russia has increasingly targeted Ukraine’s bridges spanning the Dnipro as part of its air campaign against critical infrastructure ahead of winter, when it hopes to break kyiv’s resolve and force it to capitulate.
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, views the strikes as retaliation for Ukraine’s campaign against Russian energy and logistics infrastructure, according to sources briefed on his thinking.
Several Russian ballistic missiles and jet drones hit kyiv’s North and South bridges, damaging pillars and leaving craters in the asphalt. Damage to a single bridge can disrupt civilian and military supplies and complicate travel for emergency services. An attack on Saturday paralyzed much of the Ukrainian capital, causing traffic jams and forcing people to walk instead of drive.
For kyiv’s nearly four million residents, there are just eight bridges connecting the capital’s east and west banks, carrying commuters and pedestrians, as well as the trucks and other vehicles that keep the country moving.
The next crossing over the Dnipro north of the capital is the kyiv hydroelectric power station, which also acts as a bridge, approximately 16 km from the northern bridge. In the opposite direction, the nearest crossing is the Kaniv hydroelectric power station, about 130 km from the southern bridge. Beyond that, there are only a handful of passable bridges connecting eastern and western Ukraine.
Analysts say any bridges rendered impassable by Russian attacks would risk complicating Ukraine’s military logistics, with the battlefield confined to the eastern half of the country.
“Sustained strikes on the Dnipro bridges would impact the flow of munitions, fuel and reinforcements from Ukraine from west to east to a handful of crossing points,” said Franz-Stefan Gady, a Vienna-based military analyst.
“Since heavy equipment and bulk munitions are primarily transported by train, the destruction of railway bridges would make it more difficult for Ukraine to quickly move its reserves to threatened sectors of the front. »
However, it is unlikely that Russia will completely cut off eastern Ukraine, he added. “But that’s not really necessary: the goal here is friction and attrition, and the key questions are how long Moscow can sustain the strike campaign and how Ukraine allocates its already scarce air defenses to protect the crossings.”
Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that in the past Russian strikes on bridges had been sporadic and “it would take a concerted strike effort to disrupt traffic on the bridges crossing the Dnipro.”
“Even then, Ukraine can build pontoon bridges,” he added.
kyiv authorities have already floated the idea of launching pontoon bridges to facilitate civilian traffic, but none have been deployed.
Ukraine has struggled to defend its bridges and other critical infrastructure due to a lack of Patriot interceptors. American-made missiles are the only munitions in kyiv’s arsenal capable of reliably shooting down Russian ballistic missiles. Global shortages resulting from the U.S. war in Iran have left Washington and Ukraine’s European allies reluctant to part with their stockpiles.
Even worse for kyiv, Serhiy Beskrestnov, Zelenskyy’s adviser, said Russian ballistic missiles were hitting bridges with greater precision thanks to a sophisticated new guidance system that helped them bypass Ukrainian navigation jammers.
He wrote on Telegram: “When the warhead descends, it performs a radar scan of the terrain for a few seconds, and a correction is then transmitted to the missile guidance system.”
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, declined to comment on Ukraine’s claims. “We are waiting for tomorrow’s negotiations and continuing the special military operation,” Russia’s euphemism for its invasion, he told the FT.
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