Ukrainian drones shut down every airport serving Moscow on Friday afternoon, grounding flights at all four of the capital's airports, sending passengers at the city's biggest hub into shelters, and snarling more than 340 flights in the latest proof that Ukraine can reach deep into Russia and close its skies.
Russia's civil aviation authority, Rosaviatsiya, halted arrivals and departures at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky airports at 2:05 p.m. Moscow time, after partial restrictions had already been imposed at Vnukovo and Domodedovo earlier in the afternoon. "Temporary restrictions on aircraft arrivals and departures are necessary to ensure flight safety," the agency said.
At Sheremetyevo, Russia's largest airport, an air-raid alert sounded — the first in the airport's history, according to reports — and passengers were moved out of the terminals' secure areas into shelters. Some travelers were taken off aircraft so they could reach safety. "Due to measures being taken to ensure flight safety, passengers should be prepared for longer waiting times," the airport warned. Debris from a downed drone was reported on a Sheremetyevo runway, and photos said to show wreckage on the tarmac circulated on social media, though the Kyiv Independent could not independently verify them.
"Russian airspace will become completely unsafe."
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defenses destroyed nine drones by 1:39 p.m., and his tally climbed through the afternoon to 17 drones shot down on the approaches to the capital; later reports put the number at 21 over a two-hour period. FlightRadar24 data showed 85 cancelled flights and 229 delayed flights at Sheremetyevo alone over the day, and more than 340 flights delayed or cancelled across the Moscow hub. Twenty-five Moscow-bound flights were diverted to St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport and 13 more to Nizhny Novgorod. The all-clear sounded at Sheremetyevo around 5 p.m., but in the evening the restrictions were imposed again at all four airports over a renewed drone threat before being lifted once more.
The disruption reached beyond the airports. An evacuation was reported at the IQ-Quarter tower in the Moscow City business district, which houses several Russian government ministries, though TASS later reported, citing emergency services, that the alarm there had been false. Explosions were also reported in Oryol, about 350 kilometres southwest of Moscow, where Governor Andrey Klychkov confirmed an enterprise had been targeted; the independent Russian outlet ASTRA, citing open-source analysis, identified the plant as Proton, a maker of semiconductor devices and electronic components that can be used in Russian weapons systems. Ukraine had not commented on the day's attacks as of publication.
Friday was not an isolated event. Moscow's four airports have been forced to shut almost daily in October, according to the independent investigative outlet Agentstvo, sometimes for up to nine hours at a stretch; more than 500 flights were cancelled at the capital's airports between October 16 and 18 alone. The campaign is one Ukraine announced openly. On September 1, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned every airline, insurer and government using Russian airports that Ukrainian drones would make the country's airspace unusable: "Russian airspace will become completely unsafe." President Vladimir Putin responded by accusing Kyiv of "state terrorism."
On Friday, that warning stopped being a threat and became the timetable at four grounded airports — exactly as Zelenskyy had promised: "Russian airspace will become completely unsafe."