Ukrainian Drones and Balloons Paralyze All Moscow Airports

Due to an attack by drones and hot air balloons in Moscow on Friday, all four airports — Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, and Zhukovsky — were closed.

This was reported at 3:19 p.m. by Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya).

“Vnukovo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky, and Sheremetyevo airports are closed to arriving and departing aircraft,” Rosaviatsiya stated.

This led to the delay or cancellation of more than 340 flights, according to the Moscow publication msk1.

Some of the planes headed for Moscow were rerouted to alternate airports.

Amid the emergency, passengers began to be evacuated from Sheremetyevo Airport.

In addition, due to the drone attack on the Russian capital, visitors to the IQ-Quarter tower in Moscow’s “Moscow-City” business center were evacuated.

Some flights were diverted to Pulkovo Airport in St. Petersburg.

According to Baza, five flights from Hanoi, St. Petersburg, Murmansk, Beijing, and Kaliningrad were diverted to St. Petersburg.

A flight from Sochi was diverted to Nizhny Novgorod, another flight from Beijing to Minsk, and a flight from Doha to Baku. A flight from Samara was returned to its departure airport.

This is already the fifth such incident in October. Last week, Moscow airports suspended operations for 5–7 hours due to a drone attack.

At that time, more than 350 flights were delayed or canceled. On October 16, restrictions were also imposed at all Moscow airports, affecting more than 200 flights.

Among the planes waiting to land in Moscow due to the airspace closure was the world’s largest passenger aircraft.

An Emirates Airbus A380, flying from Dubai to Domodedovo, was circling in the sky over the Penza region.

Drone attack on Moscow

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin began reporting the first drones over the Moscow region around 1:00 p.m.

As of 5:00 p.m., the drone attack was still ongoing.

According to monitoring channels, drones approaching Moscow and the activity of Russian air defense systems began to be detected around 1:38 p.m.

One of the aircraft-type drones crashed on the grounds of Sheremetyevo Airport.

Analysts at Exilenova+ reported that Moscow is also being attacked by balloons carrying suspended loads.

“Balloons with suspended payloads, presumably carrying explosives or small drones, are creeping toward Moscow,” the analysts said.

In September, Volodymyr Zelensky warned of the dangers of flying in Russian airspace due to the high activity of Ukrainian drones.