Ukraine has carried out the largest drone attack ever perpetrated against Russia, forcing several important Russian airports. This caused huge chaos, the Moscow Times reports. The Russian defense Ministry said that 524 Ukrainian drones throughout the country during the night, which marks the largest wave of drone attacks since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The Russian army also informs the destruction of several missiles.
During the air attack, the civil aviation authorities temporarily suspended flights at Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky airports in Moscow and in the cities of Nizhny Novgorod, Kirov, Yaroslavl, Kazan and others, warning of possible cancellations. “The restrictions were imposed to guarantee the safety of civil aircraft flights,” said Artyom Korenyako, spokesman for the Federal Air Transport Agency in Russia.
The main airlines, including Aeroflot, Pobeda and S7, warned passengers to wait interruptions after canceling hundreds of flights for Tuesday and Wednesday. S7 promised to provide a complete reimbursement to passengers with canceled flights or change tickets for other flights if there are seats available.
In Siberia, the transport authorities said that more than 4,000 passengers were stranded in the airports of 10 cities. Many of the interruptions were due to the flights were late due to aerial restrictions at Moscow airports.
The Russian Association of Tourist Operators later said Wednesday that at least 60,000 passengers had faced delays and flight cancellations until Wednesday afternoon. “Due to the peculiarities of the planning of the airlines, these delays and cancellations will not be the end: the planes that did not reach their destination in time will also be delayed for other flights ”, The organization declared the Kommersant economic magazine.
The closures are a hard blow for the organization of the celebrations of May 9 in the Red Square, where the Chinese president, Xi Jinping is expected to arrive in Moscow to hold conversations with President Vladimir Putin and attend victory day. According to the agentstvvo news agency, foreign officials usually fly to Vnukovo airport during their official visits to Russia.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said the air defense forces destroyed eight drones on Tuesday night and nine o’clock on Wednesday, which marks the third consecutive day of attacks on the capital.
According to Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian center for the fight against misinformation, the night attacks aimed at the Kubinka air base in the Moscow region and the Shaykovka airfield in the Kaluga region. Meanwhile, in kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said two people died in attacks with Russian unmanned planes in the Ukrainian capital.
Related news :