A Russian drone slammed into a school in Kyiv and two more struck the support structure of a vital bridge over the Dnipro River on Thursday, as Moscow pressed an intensifying aerial campaign against the Ukrainian capital just a day after a drone hit the grounds of a nuclear research institute.

The drone tore into the third floor of the school building during morning hours, setting off a fire and shattering windows, but no one was hurt because more than 100 students and staff were sheltering underground when it struck, according to RTE and Al Jazeera. School director Valentyna Chorna said the building had been targeted despite being full of children.

They spare no one. Children are our future, the future of our nation.

Bridge in the crosshairs

Hours later, at around 12:53 p.m. local time, two more drones hit near the support pylons of the Pivdennyi (South) Bridge, a combined road-and-metro crossing of the Dnipro that links eastern and western Kyiv. Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed the strikes and said metro trains and surface transport were suspended across the span while municipal engineers from Kyivavtoshliakhmist inspected it for structural damage, according to the Kyiv Post. Officials said the bridge itself avoided major damage, but the attack marked a notable escalation: Ukrainian drone-warfare analyst Serhiy Beskrestnov has reported that Russia only began deploying shaped-charge warheads designed to sever steel bridge pylons a day earlier, on September 30.

That same Wednesday, a Russian drone struck the grounds of Ukraine's Institute for Nuclear Research in Kyiv, home to the shut-down VVR-M research reactor. A fire broke out but was quickly put out, and regulators said radiation readings stayed within the natural background range; the reactor's core has been fully unloaded since 2022 as a safety precaution. Kyiv's nuclear regulator branded the strike an attack on a peaceful scientific facility and a war crime.

The twin strikes are part of a broader surge: Ukraine's air force has logged 3,177 drone attacks nationwide in September, up from 2,850 in August, as Russia leans on jet-powered Shahed-type drones that are harder to intercept. Separately on Thursday, Russian officials reported one person killed by a drone in the Belgorod border region, and Britain announced 31 new sanctions tied to the detention, torture and militarization of Ukrainian children in Russian-held territory.

What happens next

Kyiv's municipal authorities are expected to publish a full damage assessment of the South Bridge in the coming days, while Ukrainian officials say they are pressing Western partners for more air-defense interceptors ahead of what Kyiv has warned will be a harsh winter bombing campaign against power and heating infrastructure. No shift in Moscow's strategy of nightly strikes on the capital has been signaled.