Russian strikes kill at least six across Ukraine, damage Kyiv bridge

Moscow says it will keep up "mass retaliatory strikes" as Moldova reports Russian weapons crossing into its airspace

Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least six people on Friday and damaged a bridge in northern Kyiv, forcing officials to suspend traffic across it. Moscow said it would continue "mass retaliatory strikes" on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities. Fresh strikes also caused deaths and injuries in Kharkiv and Odesa.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu said the war is "dangerously reaching" her country after five Russian air attack weapons violated Moldovan airspace. The incursion pushes the conflict's geographic reach beyond Ukraine for the first time in recent weeks, raising a question the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa strikes had not: exposure for territory adjacent to NATO.

The strikes come as diplomatic contacts continue without a ceasefire. President Vladimir Putin pitched a sale of Lukoil assets directly to US officials Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on September 5. The Kremlin has also said it will keep blocking weapons and fuel shipments to Ukraine through the Black Sea, as Turkish and French efforts to broker a ceasefire remain stalled. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Putin told his military leaders to abandon the rules of war, and separately said Ukraine struck Russian refineries overnight, part of a string of hits on Russian fuel infrastructure since September.

The bridge damage and the renewed pledge to keep striking Kyiv suggest the Kremlin sees no near-term reason to pull back, despite the Trump-brokered contacts. Nothing in Friday's attacks yet breaks the pattern that has held for the past month: strikes continuing in parallel with talks that have not produced a ceasefire.