Drones again halted the operation of airports in Moscow and St. Petersburg overnight
Nearly 200 flights have been delayed or canceled. The Atlantic wrote that Ukraine's campaign aimed at paralyzing the operations of Russian airports is "just beginning."
Drones again disrupted the operation of Moscow and St. Petersburg airports overnight
On the evening of October 15, restrictions were introduced on the arrival and departure of flights at Moscow's Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo, and Zhukovsky airports.
According to Rosaviatsia, these restrictions were lifted only by the morning of October 16. Nearly 160 flights were grounded at these airports overnight. According to the "Moskva" agency, most of them accounted for Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports — 66 and 79, respectively.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced that during this period, air defense forces shot down 94 drones flying toward the Russian capital.
St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport was also closed overnight. Restrictions here were lifted only by 9 a.m. According to "Fontanka", 37 flights scheduled to depart overnight were delayed or canceled, and the airport was unable to accept 9 flights. According to the Governor of the Leningrad Region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, 4 drones were shot down over the region.
The Atlantic journalist Simon Shuster, citing his source, wrote that Ukraine's campaign aimed at paralyzing the operations of Russian airports is "just beginning."
On September 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called to "take into account the risk of drones appearing unexpectedly" and warned that Russian skies were "becoming dangerous."
According to Shuster's sources, in recent weeks Ukraine has been trying to make it difficult to use the airspace around Russian airports using long-range drones. However, Zelenskyy has not yet approved the initial plan, which envisioned a much more aggressive tactic.
An even broader version of the campaign includes the use of AI-driven drones capable of bypassing Russian air defense systems. According to one of The Atlantic's sources, mass production of such drones is expected to begin soon.
The publication writes that the initial plan was actively promoted by former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. After his resignation in July, the development of the plan came to a halt.
In October, disruptions at Moscow airports increased. According to calculations by "Agentstvo", in the first two weeks of the month, closures at the four airports totaled 101 hours, whereas in September this figure was 46 hours. On the night of October 14, a record 7-hour period was recorded during which all airports in Moscow were closed simultaneously.