Disrupting the Victory Day parade: Ukrainian drones paralyse Moscow airspace for three days in row
ADVERTISEMENT
A slew of flight delays and diversions at Moscow airports affected thousands of travellers yet again on Wednesday following another Ukrainian drone attack.
Days before the Victory Day parade in the Russian capital — one of the largest public holidays and the most important events for President Vladimir Putin — chaos in Moscow's airspace persisted for the third day in a row.
According to the Association of Russia's Tour Operators, some airports have been closed, while around 350 flights have been reportedly affected.
At least 60,000 passengers have experienced disruption, with many of them left stuck on board planes for several hours.
Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency also warned of flight delays across central Russia "due to the late arrival of aircraft at the initial airports of destination."
For a third consecutive day, Russian authorities report downing Ukrainian drones approaching Moscow, disrupting aviation in the region.
Russian outlets claim that a Ukrainian drone attack caused a "collapse" at airports in the Moscow region, forcing airlines to delay departures or divert planes elsewhere.
Among those affected is Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. His plane was reportedly forced to divert to the Azerbaijani capital of Baku because of the threats in Russian airspace.
According to Serbian state news agency Tanjug, his flight to Moscow to attend the parade was disrupted by what the agency calls "active hostilities between Russia and Ukraine".
Brussels issued a stark warning to the Serbian leader a few days ago, indicating that Vučić's visit would violate EU membership criteria and potentially hurt Serbia's accession process to the 27-member bloc.
Earlier, Serbian newspaper Novosti reported that Lithuania and Latvia have denied a flight with Vučić on board from crossing their airspace en route to Moscow for the Victory Day parade on Friday, citing "political (...) technical and diplomatic sensitivity".
The same outlet also reported that Poland and Lithuania had denied flyover rights to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, raising similar concerns. His attendance remains uncertain at this point.
Estonia also said it would not allow the aircraft carrying leaders heading to the Victory Day parade in Moscow to pass through its airspace.
"Estonia does not intend to support the event in any way," Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said.
"We have stressed to our European Union colleagues that as Russia is a country that launched and continues a war in Europe, participation in propaganda events organised by them should be ruled out."
ADVERTISEMENT
Victory Day 'ceasefire'
In an effort to protect and secure the parade, Putin announced a unilateral 'truce' from Thursday to midnight on Sunday.
The Kremlin announced the measure on 28 April, claiming all military actions would halt during that period and urging Ukraine to "follow this example."
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed the proposal as a "theatrical performance" designed to reduce Russia's international isolation and secure favourable conditions for Moscow's Victory Day events on Friday.
He also said that Ukraine could not guarantee the safety of foreign officials planning to attend Victory Day events in Russia.
ADVERTISEMENT
On Wednesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Russia's unilateral ceasefire during the Victory Day celebrations remains in place and will run from midnight to midnight from 8 to 11 May.
Overnight on Wednesday, Russia launched a massive missile and drone attack on Kyiv, killing two people and injuring eight others, including four children, officials reported.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
4 hours ago
- France 24
NATO learns as Ukraine's 'creativity' changes battlefield
"What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse -- and the trojan horse was thousands of years ago," French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said in an interview. "Today, we see this kind of tactic being reinvented by technical and industrial creativity." Vandier said the operation showed how crucial innovation and adaptation were for victory, as modern warfare changes at lightning speed. "It was a real coup." "We are entering a dynamic era where armies must rely on both major planning but also adaptive planning," the navy commander said. "We will witness continuous innovation where, week by week, month by month or year by year, we will be able to invent things we hadn't anticipated." 'Must act quickly' Faced with the Russian threat, NATO this week adopted new objectives for its defence capabilities to ensure it will be able to repel Moscow. But Western intelligence agencies have warned that the Kremlin is reconstituting its forces at a pace far outstripping NATO and could be ready to attack the alliance in as little as four years. "Time is truly a crucial parameter. We must act quickly," Vandier said. The admiral, who previously commanded France's flagship Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, said NATO needed to amass the forces to dissuade any adversary from trying an attack. "When you say 'I'm defending myself', you have the weapons to defend. When you say you deter, you have the weapons to deter," he said. "That's what should prevent war -- making the adversary think: "Tomorrow morning, I won't win." NATO countries under pressure from US President Donald Trump are expected to agree a major increase in their defence spending target at a summit in The Hague this month. That should see a dramatic surge in spending on military hardware. But if cheap Ukrainian drones can inflict billions of dollars in damage on Russian bombers, is it still worth investing in vastly expensive systems? "No-one in the military sphere will tell you that we can do without what we'll call traditional equipment," Vandier said. "However, we are certain we need new equipment to complement it." Officials say that over 70 percent of battlefield casualties in Ukraine are caused by drones. But while drones are indispensable in modern warfare, they are not omnipotent. "Today, you won't cross the Atlantic with a 10-meter-long (33-foot-long) drone. You won't easily locate submarines with such tools," Vandier said. "If they accompany your large platforms, you'll be able to achieve much better results at much lower costs." Integrating new technologies The admiral, who works out of NATO's US base in Norfolk, Virginia, said the major challenge was "integrating new technologies and new combat methods, based on what we've witnessed in Ukraine". NATO and Ukraine have established a centre in Poland designed to help the alliance learn lessons from Russia's invasion of its neighbour. Artificial Intelligence and robotics are also increasingly having an impact and are set to help reshape the battlefield. "All modern armies will have piloted and non-piloted capabilities," Vandier said. "It's much more efficient to deliver ammunition with a ground robot than with a squad of soldiers who could face a 155-millimeter (six-inch) shell." This transformation of military capabilities within the alliance, which NATO aims to expand by at least 30 percent over coming years, will come at a significant cost, estimated in hundreds of billions of euros (dollars). Vandier insisted that while the financial effort was "substantial" it was "fully realistic". "Today, we have all the tools. We have the engineering. We have the expertise. We have the technology. So, we need to get started," he said.
LeMonde
4 hours ago
- LeMonde
The Russian family of dissidents that spans generations
From her kitchen, Zoïa Svetova is changing the world. When we interviewed Svetova, her face was radiant, her smile warm. Yet the eyes and hands of the 66-year-old journalist, one of the most respected in the anti-Kremlin circles in Moscow, betrayed a deep concern. In her central Moscow apartment, a haven for the Russian intelligentsia, the black-clad police could burst in at any moment. One of Svetova's sons had just been placed on the list of people sought by the authorities. The authorities made no announcement, but Mediazona, a website independent of the Kremlin, extracted the information from an Interior Ministry database: Tikhon Dzyadko, editor-in-chief of the opposition channel Dojd, labeled an "undesirable organization" by Moscow since 2023 and in exile in the Netherlands, was being prosecuted in a criminal case. No further details were available. The family is used to this; they have generations of dissidents. "Since the beginning of the USSR, we have been on the side of Russians oppressed by their own state," insisted Svetova. "On the side of justice, of people who are in their right." The police could therefore appear at any moment to search the apartment, a family nest for generations. They would not find Tikhon, who left the country over three years ago. Svetova now lives alone. "Life is about taking risks. I feel the danger, but I don't want to think about it," she confided over tea and a few chocolates, those brightly wrapped treats unchanged since Soviet times. In her home, time seemed to have stood still. Black-and-white family photos, colorful icons, small pieces of jewelry, candle stubs, an hourglass, miniature baskets and other items had accumulated on the wooden furniture.
Euronews
5 hours ago
- Euronews
The PP demands new elections in a mass protest in Madrid
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Sunday that its forces had reached the western edge of the Donetsk region, one of the four provinces Russia illegally annexed in 2022, and that troops were 'developing the offensive' in the neighbouring Dnipropetrovsk region. This would be the first time Russian troops had pushed into the region in the more than three-year-old war. Ukraine has denied the claim. Russia's advance would mark a significant setback for Ukraine's already stretched forces as peace talks remain stalled and Russian troops have made incremental gains elsewhere. Putin's forces also appear to be within a few kilometres of the city of Sumy, three years after Ukraine forced them out of the northern region. One person was killed and another seriously wounded in Russian aerial strikes on the eastern Ukrainian Kharkiv region. These strikes came after Russian attacks targeted the regional capital on Saturday. Regional police in Kharkiv said on Sunday that the death toll from Saturday's attacks had increased to six people. More than two dozen others were wounded. Russia fired a total of 49 exploding drones and decoys and three missiles overnight, Ukraine's air force said Sunday. Forty drones were shot down or electronically jammed. Russia's defence ministry said that its forces shot down 61 Ukrainian drones overnight, including near the capital. Five people were wounded Sunday in a Ukrainian drone attack on a parking lot in Russia's Belgorod region, according to regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. Two people were wounded when a Ukrainian drone attack sparked a fire at a chemical plant in the Tula region, local authorities said. Russian authorities said early Sunday that Vnukovo and Domodedovo airports, two international airports serving Moscow, temporarily suspended flights because of a Ukrainian drone attack. Later in the day, Domodedovo halted flights temporarily for a second time, along with Zhukovsky airport. Thousands of people gathered on Sunday in Madrid's central Plaza de España to protest against the government in a demonstration organised by the Popular Party (PP). Under the slogan 'Mafia or democracy', the PP called on citizens to 'mobilise' against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez following the scandal surrounding the WhatsApp messages of socialist activist Leire Díez and the alleged cases of corruption plaguing his term in office. "We are here to defend our country and democratic dignity", opposition leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo said in his speech. "Spain is tired, but it has not given up. Today we are here (...) so that you can speak loud and clear to the president who is hiding; here is a country that is not doing so (...) we are not going to remain silent", he added. In conclusion, he called on Sánchez to clear the way for fresh elections to be held. The rally, which began at 11:00 local time, also featured speeches by the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, and the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, and was attended by former presidents José María Aznar and Mariano Rajoy. According to the Popular Party, some 100,000 people took part in Sunday's protest, although the Government Delegation in Madrid put the number of attendees at around 50,000. On Monday at 17:00, the National Electoral Commission (PKW) will consider erroneously completed protocols in some constituencies at a meeting, PKW member Ryszard Kalisz announced in a post on X. He was referring to the second round of the presidential election. According to the official results of the PKW, the election was won by Karol Nawrocki. The candidate supported by Law and Justice (PiS) won 10,606,877 votes, or 50.89%. He defeated Civic Coalition (KO) candidate Rafal Trzaskowski, who got the vote from 10,237,286 people in the second round, or 49.11%. Ultimately, the validity of the presidential election is decided by the Supreme Court on the basis of the report presented by the PKW and after considering protests. Certain entities, including voters, can submit written protests until 16 June. The Supreme Court has received 21 election protests, Monika Drwal of the Supreme Court press team reported on Friday. A petition for a recount of the votes is being collected online. To date, the petition has collected more than 160,000 signatures. "Given the extremely small difference of 369,591 votes between the candidates in the last presidential election, the very high number of 189,000 invalid votes, as well as the numerous reports of irregularities in the work of the electoral commissions, we feel obliged to call for a recount of all votes cast," wrote the authors of the petition. - wrote the authors of the petition. Signals of irregularities appeared, among others, in Minsk Mazowiecki. The authorities there reported that the results of two candidates had been swapped in one of the commissions. The chairman of the commission admitted that he had made a mistake in the minutes. A similar incident occurred in Krakow, specifically at PEC number 95 on Stawowa Street. The District Election Commission in Krakow is investigating the matter. The case has been addressed by the Polish authorities. Prime Minister Donald Tusk tried to tone down the mood of some internet users who suggested that the elections had been rigged. "Every reported case of irregularities in vote counting is checked and analysed. Possible falsifications are being investigated and will be punished. Protests will go to the Supreme Court. I understand emotions, but assuming in advance that the elections have been rigged does not serve the Polish state". - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote in a post on the X platform. The head of the office of the incumbent Polish president, Małgorzata Paprocka, commented on the matter on Saturday. Although she admitted that there had been an error in one of the commissions in counting the votes, she added in an interview with Trwam TV that she was concerned about attempts to question the election results. "The myth of falsifying the election result, undermining the mandate of the president, trying to antagonise the public, trying to introduce such unrest is an absolutely scandalous thing," - she said during the interview. "Of course such a mistake should not have happened, of course it should be clarified, but it has no bearing," - Paprocka assessed.
