A Russian strike has hit a second major bridge in Kyiv, Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko has said, as Moscow ramps up attacks on critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital.

The attack on Saturday morning injured two people, and damaged the road surface and overhead trolleybus wires on the Pivnichnyi (Northern) Bridge, Klitschko said, causing traffic jams.

It comes after the Pivdennyi (Southern) Bridge was hit multiple times by Russian drones this week, with Klitschko warning that “the enemy is tearing Kyiv apart”.

Russia said its drones had hit the two bridges used to transfer Ukrainian troops and military cargo. Moscow again urged foreign citizens, including diplomats, to leave Kyiv.

The two Kyiv bridges across the Dnipro River link the western and eastern parts of the capital and had not been hit before Thursday.

The Russian strikes have severed road, rail and trolleybus links across the wide river. The ongoing drone threat means restrictions on other routes, bringing traffic jams to the city’s roads for a second day – though Friday’s gridlock has not been repeated to the same level.

Many of the city’s residents – which number about three million – rely on the metro to travel across the city every day. The fear is this new Russian tactic will result in sustained attacks which could effectively cut the city in two.

Writing on Telegram on Saturday morning, Klitschko said “emergency services are on their way” after the Pivnichnyi Bridge was hit.

“Traffic on the bridge from the left to the right bank is currently blocked,” he added.

Earlier attacks on the Pivdennyi Bridge prompted Kyiv’s defence council to hold a crisis meeting on Friday.

Klitschko warned afterwards that the city was now in a “very dramatic situation” as Moscow was battering its “critical infrastructure, logistics, housing” and other key facilities.

Experts say Russian drones are unlikely to bring down the bridges – but repeated attacks will force their closure and risk weakening their structure, making them unusable.

More powerful weapons could collapse the bridges, some of which are reported to be in poor condition after years carrying heavier traffic than they were designed for.

It was reported that Ukrainian lawmakers discussed the state of Kyiv’s bridges in a recent meeting, setting out contingency plans to use ferries or temporary pontoon bridges to keep the city connected in the event of any bridges being destroyed.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Russia is acting in response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russian energy facilities, despite the fact that it was Moscow that had first launched such attacks.

After the Pivdennyi Bridge was attacked, passengers described how dust from a blast wave entered their carriage through the ventilation system.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin had decided that there were “no rules now” when attacking Ukraine.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he said: “The Russians have failed to occupy us. So now they are carrying out massive attacks and mass killings.”

He added: “They want to destroy our bridges… our data centres, the internet, mobile networks, hospitals, kindergartens, schools, universities – everything. They want people to flee their cities.”

Putin on Thursday insisted that Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian economic targets were a direct response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s oil refineries and its ships in the Black Sea.

“Now from every direction we’re receiving calls ‘let’s stop’. But they started it,” Putin said after a wide-ranging speech at the Valdai foreign policy forum.

The Kremlin leader admitted Kyiv had “got some results” from its refinery attacks and Russia had lost about 1% of its GDP. Ukraine maintains it began attacking Russian oil infrastructure because it helps the Kremlin finance the war.

Russia has targeted Ukrainian energy infrastructure, ramping up attacks every winter since Putin launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In other developments on Saturday: