(MOSCOW, RUSSIA) – Air travel across the Russian capital faced major disruption on Monday morning after authorities reported a large scale drone attack on Moscow, forcing three airports to suspend operations.
Moscow’s mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram that air defence systems belonging to the Russian defence ministry shot down 12 unmanned aerial vehicles heading for the city. Emergency service specialists were working at the sites where debris had fallen, he said. In a later update, Sobyanin reported that a further 21 drones had been intercepted, bringing the total number claimed shot down to 33.
Russia’s federal air transport agency Rosaviatsiya announced restrictions and a halt to flights at Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports serving the capital.
Images and video footage posted on social media channels showed drones flying overhead and plumes of smoke rising from locations across Moscow Oblast. Unverified reports on social media suggested one target may have been a plant in the town of Chekhov, southwest of Moscow, which houses a tyre recycling facility producing rubber crumb and reclaimed materials. Other posts pointed to a further strike on Wildberries warehouse facilities in the village of Koledino.
The incident follows a strike on a space communications centre in Moscow Oblast, which Ukraine’s defence forces reported hitting earlier. It also comes as an electrical substation on Kerch Highway was reported burning in temporarily occupied Feodosia on the Crimean peninsula, leaving most of the city without power.