The latest Russian attacks on three major bridges crossing the Dnieper River in Kiev have created a “transport collapse|” that fuels the already pre-existing movement of Kiev’s 3 million residents out of the city.
Per the “business newspaper” Взгляд (Viewpoint) an hour ago, Kiev residents are leaving en masse. This shows up in the fast rising number of vacant apartments being offered for rent. Where they are going the Ukrainian press isn’t saying, but it would be an intelligent guess that they are on their way to Western Europe where no warm welcome awaits them.
The transport “collapse” is described in the Ukrainian publication Insider which explains it by the decision of the city authorities to shut down movement on the biggest bridges across the Dnieper – the Southern, the Metro bridge and the Platon bridge. Normally passenger flows between the Left and Right banks of the river are 40,000 per hour.
Quietly, discreetly Russian media are asking why this was not done long ago. Tens of thousands of lives of Russian soldiers could have been spared by the war’s shortening.
Copyright Gilbert Doctorow, 2026
The renewed attacks on power stations in the Kiev area are probably having some effects too. Ever lived in a high-rise apartment when the power went out? No elevators; water runs out; cold. Clearly, from the perspective of individual Kievans, it makes sense to move out of the city to somewhere at ground level with more reliable power, water, heat.
Question is -- Does anyone in the Zelensky regime care that the Kievans are leaving? As long as the European money keeps flooding in and the front line continues to move at glacial speed, everything is fine for the regime.
And European "leaders" certainly don't care about ordinary Ukrainians. Additional Ukrainian refugees might not be exactly welcome to European citizens, but remember this is Europe where the rulers care nothing for the interests of their peons. Look at England -- the government is doing nothing to stop the large influx of illegal immigrants from various Muslim countries, and instead is arresting British citizens who protest it. Would that English government react to a new influx of Ukrainians?
The proxy war will continue until the Euros decide to stop supporting it. And Russia knows that.
There was a Russian ex-pat (I think) that ran a site called 'Anti-Empire'. The site is gone now, I am pretty sure, although I used to read it regularly.
I just found some info: the guy is named Marko Marjanović and he has a substack now https://substack.com/@antiempire
He stated with certainty that Russia would invade Ukraine, based on satellite photos of troop concentrations, when everyone was saying it would not occur. About a week or two into the conflict he said this was not a 'war' and that Putin was not serious about winning ... one big reason? No attacks on the Dnieper bridges. (he was utterly contemptuous of Putin).
Everyone is a genius now, but there were people with brains who spelled it almost 5 years ago. Marjanović was one of them.