Zelensky: Russia is trying to force people to leave Kyiv
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the intensification of Russian attacks on Kyiv is aimed not only at causing physical destruction, but also at paralyzing everyday life in the capital and forcing some of its residents to leave.
He said this in an interview with El País, which he gave while visiting a school in Kyiv damaged by a Russian strike.
According to Zelensky, Moscow has effectively returned to one of the goals it pursued at the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022 - to create conditions under which people would start leaving the capital.
The President linked the current campaign of strikes primarily to an attempt to disrupt the functioning of urban logistics and civilian infrastructure. He drew attention to attacks on transport facilities, educational institutions and other infrastructure on which the normal life of the city depends.
According to Zelensky, such strikes are meant to make it harder for people to commute to work, take children to schools and kindergartens, and obtain necessary goods and medical services. He believes that Russia is thus seeking to increase psychological pressure and create a sense of chaos in the capital.
This statement came amid a sharp deterioration in the situation with Kyiv's transport infrastructure. As reported by Kurs Ukrainy, on October 2 Russia again attacked the Southern Bridge. After the hit, it was completely closed to road traffic, and additional restrictions were introduced on the Metro Bridge and the Paton Bridge. This caused significant congestion and disruptions in public transport.
The Southern Bridge has become one of the most visible targets of the current series of attacks. Since October 1 alone, it has been hit at least several times. Damage was recorded on the road surface, bridge structures and protective elements of the metro.
After the new attacks, the city authorities are separately considering the operating regime of crossings over the Dnipro. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said after a meeting of the Kyiv Defense Council that the capital is in a "very dramatic situation". According to him, critical infrastructure, logistics, residential buildings, social and energy facilities are under attack.
The capital's Defense Council separately discussed the movement of cars across bridges and the operation of the green metro line. The metro is ready to resume traffic across the Southern Bridge during a yellow air alert level, but for this the city is awaiting an expert conclusion on the condition of the structure after the strikes.
Amid the worsening security situation, indirect signs of changes in the behavior of capital residents are also appearing. In particular, real estate market participants note that the traditional autumn rush for rentals in Kyiv is absent this year. Realtors attribute this, among other things, to constant shelling and increased attention of tenants to the safety of specific buildings and districts.
At the same time, in the western regions, market experts record demand for housing from families from Kyiv. For example, in Ivano-Frankivsk, realtors report families from the capital looking for apartments for several months.
However, these data themselves do not confirm a mass exodus of residents from Kyiv and do not allow directly linking all relocations specifically to Russian strikes. There is currently no up-to-date official statistics that would show the scale of the outflow of the capital's population due to the current wave of attacks. Therefore, the situation in the rental market can only be considered as one of the indirect indicators of changes in the behavior of part of the population.
Zelensky at the same time emphasized that, despite Russian strikes, Kyiv remains a functioning capital. According to him, Russia failed to achieve its goal with regard to Kyiv in 2022 and is now trying to increase pressure on the city through other methods.
