Debris from a Russian drone damaged Cosmogony, a painting that set a national record in Ukraine, the Korsaks Museum of Contemporary Ukrainian Art in Lutsk, where the artwork was exhibited, reported on 14 October. A fire destroyed part of the painting’s final section, titled The Future, according to the statement.

Russian drones continue to attack Ukraine. Overnight into 15 October alone, Ukrainian air defense forces downed or suppressed 536 Russian unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). In recent days, Lutsk, a city in northwestern Ukraine, has been among the cities damaged by Russian attacks. Russian UAV attacks set fire to an oil depot, a wholesale warehouse, and a shopping center. At the museum, located on the shopping center’s premises, the fire damaged Ukraine’s largest painting, which covers a canvas of more than 2,000 square meters.

Russian attack damages museum in Lutsk

A fire broke out at the Adrenalin City shopping and entertainment complex, where the museum is located, Suspilne Lutsk reported. The blaze damaged the last of the painting’s six sections, according to the report.

“By destroying art and culture, they are also trying to destroy Ukrainians,” Tetiana Repnytska, director of the Museum of Contemporary Ukrainian Art in Lutsk, told Suspilne Lutsk.

Museum staff also had to evacuate more than 300 works by Ukrainian artist Emma Andiievska, which were exhibited alongside Cosmogony, Oles Tomakh, the museum’s chief curator, told Suspilne Lutsk. Some works could not be removed in time, resulting in shattered glass. However, the museum’s other exhibition halls were unaffected, the chief curator said.

The museum is weighing whether to fully restore the damaged fragment or keep the fire’s traces as a reminder of the war, and will decide after consulting the artist, Petro Antyp, and restoration specialists, it said. Repnytska told Suspilne Lutsk that the painting’s authors could also create a new section.

“Despite the shelling, we will continue to develop contemporary Ukrainian art and preserve it,” the museum director said.

Cosmogony—Ukraine’s largest painting

Artist Petro Antyp began working on the painting in November 2022, Suspilne Lutsk reported, and it took almost two years to complete, according to the museum’s website. The painting covers an area of 2,086 square meters.

In September 2024, the project set a national record as Ukraine’s largest painting.

The artwork explores the evolution of the universe, Earth, nature, humanity, society, culture, and science. Its six sections combine myths, legends, scientific theories, and symbols from different cultures, according to the museum’s website.

The project extends beyond the canvas, as the museum presents a multimedia performance that combines light, sound, and art.

Civilians killed and injured in Russia’s latest attack on Lutsk

Around noon on 14 October, a Russian jet-powered Shahed drone attacked Lutsk. Drone debris damaged a wholesale goods warehouse and a residential building, Roman Romaniuk, acting head of the Volyn Regional Military Administration, told Suspilne.

Falling drone debris sparked a large fire at the Yevrohurt wholesale warehouse. A nine-story residential building on Sobornosti Avenue was also damaged, Romaniuk later reported on social media.

Six people were killed in the strike on the warehouse: five were found at the scene, and another person died in the hospital. Eleven more people were injured, Romaniuk said.

Two other people, including a child, were injured in the residential building. Twelve people remained hospitalized, one of whom was in serious condition, according to the report.

Ukraine's state railway, Ukrzaliznytsia, has added 18 Kyiv City Express shuttle runs between Vydubychi and Darnytsia for 5–9 October, while the government has begun preparatory work on temporary crossings over the Dnipro River after Russian strikes disrupted bridge traffic. Minister for Restoration, Infrastructure and Transport Mykola Kalashnyk outlined the backup plan in an interview with Suspilne on 3 October.

About 600,000 vehicles cross the Dnipro in Kyiv each day, making the river crossings critical to movement across the capital, Kalashnyk said. Russia's attacks on the Southern and Northern bridges have disrupted traffic, with the Southern Bridge fully closed to cars and metro on 2 October and restrictions introduced on other crossings. The risk of further damage is heightened by Russia's upgraded jet-powered Geran-4, which now carries a specialized warhead designed to cut through bridge structures and power-line supports, according to presidential adviser Serhii Beskrestnov.

Jams, restrictions, and extra trains

On 6 October, large traffic jams formed between Kyiv's left and right banks, with the heaviest queues on approaches to the Southern Bridge, Obozrevatel reported. The jams followed Russian strikes that cratered the Northern Bridge.

Green-line metro trains resumed carrying passengers between the banks during the yellow threat level on 4 October, Radio Svoboda reported. Under the current restrictions, traffic on the Southern and Podilskyi bridges is stopped in certain directions for at most the first 15 minutes after an air alert begins.

Explore further

14 dead in Pryluky, two each in Kyiv, Kremenchuk, and Oleksandriia: Russia’s night of 70 missiles

The additional Kyiv City Express shuttles run during the busiest hours, 06:00–09:00 and 16:00–21:00. Together with scheduled suburban and regional trains, they bring the number of peak-hour runs between the banks to up to six, Ukrzaliznytsia said.

Pontoons first, tunnel later

Kalashnyk said the government plans to build several backup crossings over the Dnipro. The sites have already been chosen, and he named a combination of earth embankments and pontoon crossings as measures that can be built quickly. He said construction could take up to three months and that the backup crossings should provide at least 50% of the capacity of the existing bridges. The government is also considering quick-build concrete structures and, in the longer term, a tunnel under the Dnipro, he told Suspilne.

Volodymyr Kreidenko, deputy head of the parliamentary committee on transport and infrastructure and an MP from the Servant of the People party, proposed reversible traffic across the bridges: "in the morning from the left bank to the right, in the evening from the right to the left." He also suggested hubs near the bridges where people could take a bicycle or e-scooter, and passenger ferry crossings, Radio Svoboda reported.

Andrii Koretskyi, an associate professor in the department of bridges, tunnels and hydraulic structures at the National Transport University, cautioned that temporary crossings cannot substitute for a permanent bridge.

"The only alternative to a bridge is a bridge as a permanent structure," he told Radio Svoboda.

He said a tunnel under the Dnipro is technically possible but "not a quick solution at all." He pointed to the scale involved: where the Irpin River requires spanning a few dozen or, in places, a few hundred meters, the Dnipro within Kyiv is "roughly 400 to 1,500 meters" wide.