Four Moscow airports suspend operations amid reported mass drone attack
Photo: Russian Emergencies Ministry personnel at the site of a reported drone impact (Getty Images)
Moscow came under a massive drone attack on the evening of October 15. The wave of UAVs continued past midnight, and by 12:15 a.m. on Friday, 47 drones had reportedly been shot down, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported.
Sobyanin initially reported that 10 drones heading toward Moscow had been destroyed. Emergency service specialists were working at the sites where debris fell.
Twenty minutes later, the Russian official reported that another 11 drones had allegedly been shot down. A little later, he claimed that another 16 had been destroyed.
At 12:15 a.m., Sobyanin wrote that air defense forces had shot down 12 drones heading toward Moscow and that emergency service specialists were working at the sites where debris had fallen.
All four airports serving the Moscow aviation hub temporarily suspended operations amid the drone attacks, Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency reported. The airports affected were Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky.
Recall that on the night of October 14, Ukraine's Defense Forces launched hundreds of attack drones toward Moscow and the surrounding Moscow region.
The previous night, on October 13, Ukraine's Armed Forces also targeted Moscow with dozens of drones.
Notably, a recent drone attack on Moscow prevented Russian leader Vladimir Putin's plane from landing in the capital immediately as he returned from Turkmenistan. The aircraft was diverted to St. Petersburg.
The diversion was caused by restrictions imposed at the airport amid the drone attack.
