Work at four Moscow airports suspended due to drone attack
On October 23, following a drone attack on Moscow, operations at four of the city's airports were temporarily suspended, and incoming flights were diverted to other cities. It was also reported that people were evacuated from one of the buildings in "Moscow-City". Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin stated that 21 drones flying toward the capital were destroyed.
Four Moscow airports suspended operations as a result of a drone attack.
According to DW, Sobyanin issued a series of reports from 12:35 to 16:10 local time stating that drones had been shot down. He provided no detailed information, saying only that emergency services were working at the sites where debris fell.
Due to the attack, all four of Moscow's airports were temporarily closed. An air raid alert was issued at Sheremetyevo, the busiest among them.
Planes bound for Moscow were diverted to airports in Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and other cities. In particular, Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg accepted 25 flights.
Ukraine's monitoring Telegram channel Exilenova+ published a photo of drone debris allegedly taken at Sheremetyevo Airport. Another monitoring channel, Exile+, reported that small-sized balloons were also used in the attack.
On the same day, several Moscow publications, citing eyewitnesses, reported that people had been evacuated from the "IQ-quarter" tower in the "Moscow-City" business center. This building houses the offices of Russia's Ministries of Digital Development, Economic Development, and Industry and Trade.
A short video distributed by the "Ostorozhno, novosti" Telegram channel showed an announcement over a loudspeaker that an evacuation was being conducted due to a "drone threat." However, the state agency TASS reported that an alarm was triggered by mistake in one of the skyscrapers.
On the evening of October 23, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that 87 Ukrainian drones had been destroyed over seven regions of the country and annexed Crimea throughout the day. The Moscow region was also noted in the ministry's report.