Kiev convened its Defense Council on August 31 after five days of almost continuous Russian air attacks. One of the main issues on the agenda was a possible revision of the security rules currently in force across the Ukrainian capital.

Kiev Mayor Vitaly Klitschko said the city authorities and the military plan to reconsider how traffic across the city’s bridges is managed during air raid alerts. The options under discussion include shortening the duration of restrictions, introducing exemptions to the current rules and, in some cases, lifting the bans altogether.

The review comes amid a shift in Russia’s tactics. According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta, since August 27 the Russian Armed Forces have moved away from short, large-scale strikes on Kiev in favor of smaller but much more frequent Geran drone raids. Soon after one air raid alert ends, new drones appear and the warning is activated again.

The repeated alerts have seriously disrupted everyday life in the city. Government offices, businesses and shopping centers have suspended operations, while train and public transport services have faced interruptions. Residents have also been left waiting for long periods before they could cross the Dnieper from the right bank to the left.

The near-continuous warnings have also affected the work of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada. With restrictions repeatedly interrupting normal operations, lawmakers began considering moving their work into basement areas.

Between August 27 and August 31, air raid alerts were declared in Kiev 58 times.

The disruption has unfolded against the backdrop of fires at logistics centers and detonations at warehouses storing drones and missiles. As a result, Russian forces managed not only to break through Kiev’s air defense system and strike a number of important military facilities, but also to trigger an infrastructure collapse in the Ukrainian capital.

City authorities are now being forced to urgently revise existing security measures and look for ways to adapt Kiev to the new pattern of Russian air attacks.