Latest news with #MoscowAirports
Arab News
28-05-2025
- General
- Arab News
Moscow airports disrupted as Russia says Ukraine launches drone assault
MOSCOW: Russian authorities said they had battled a major Ukrainian drone attack late Tuesday and early Wednesday, with at least two Moscow airports forced to suspend flights. The defense ministry said in a Telegram post that 112 Ukrainian drones had been 'destroyed and intercepted' in six different regions in the three hours up to midnight. Moscow's mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said on Telegram that 12 drones heading for the Russian capital had been shot down. Some 59 had targeted the southwestern region of Bryansk, the defense ministry said. Others were fired at the Kursk, Belgorod, Tula, Oryol and Kaluga regions. The attack comes after Ukraine said it had faced the most intense three days of Russian drone attacks since Moscow launched its military offensive in 2022. The Russian military announces Ukrainian drone attacks most days but rarely of this intensity over such a short period of time. Moscow, several hundred kilometers from the frontier, is not often the target of such a big attack. But authorities have been increasingly forced to divert flights from Moscow airports in recent weeks. This time, the Federal Aviation Transport Agency said restrictions had been introduced at Moscow's Vnukovo and Zhukovsky airports. Ukraine said that Russia launched more than 900 drones over three days up to Monday. Thirteen civilians were killed in attacks on Sunday, including three children. Russia's defense ministry said Tuesday that it had responded to Ukraine's 'provocation' by launching drone and missile attacks on Russian civilian installations.
Bloomberg
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Moscow Shot Down Drones for Third Day as Xi, Lula Due to Arrive
Russia's air defense shot down nine drones flying toward Moscow, the capital's mayor said, in an incident coming just before foreign leaders including the presidents of China and Brazil are expected in the city for Victory Day celebrations. Two of four Moscow airports, including the one that typically handles government-delegation flights, temporarily suspended operations early Wednesday morning, aviation officials said, adding normal service has since resumed.
The Independent
06-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Ukraine drones target Moscow for second night in a row ahead of Putin's war parade
Moscow's four airports were forced to close temporarily as Ukraine launched a second night of drone attacks on the Russian capital just days ahead of a major military parade marking the end of the Second World War. Russia 's defence ministry said it had been forced to down 19 drones over Moscow, out of more than 100 fired at targets across Russia. Flights were halted for several hours overnight at all four airports serving Moscow to ensure air safety, Russia's aviation watchdog said, while airports in a number of regional cities were also closed. No major destruction or injuries were reported, Moscow's mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. China's president Xi Jinping is among those expected to travel to Moscow for the parade on 9 May. Kyiv has urged against such a move – warning that any such participation would go against countries' declared neutrality in the war. Despite this, the Kremlin claimed on Tuesday that it expected 29 foreign leaders to be present at the parade, many of them neighbours with necessary and historic ties to Moscow, as well as countries such as Brazil, Egypt, Serbia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Military units from 13 countries will also attend, the Kremlin said. Several US veterans of the Second World War are expected to attend, said Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, but it is unclear whether any US officials intend to. Moscow has sent an invitation to the US ambassador. Despite launching almost daily aerial assaults against cities across Ukraine, Putin has claimed to be seeking a three-day ceasefire from Thursday to mark the Russian commemorations – with the Kremlin trying to claim that the drone attacks showed Kyiv wanted to continue the war. Ukraine has repeatedly called for a full ceasefire, and has dismissed Russia's proposed 72-hour truce as not a serious offer. A number of Ukrainian casualties – including two fatalities – were reported overnight in wide-ranging drone strikes on Odesa, Donetsk and Kharkiv, where a large fire was sparked at the city's largest market. More than 100 commercial units were either damaged or burned to the ground in the attack on the Barabashovo market, said Kharkiv's mayor Oleg Synegubov, who reported that at least 11 people had been wounded in overnight attacks across the region, four of them in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city. 'The Russian army shelled the largest market in the city, where many people come to shop. There are no military facilities or any potential military targets nearby,' said Mr Synegubov. With Ukraine's military reporting that Russia fired more than 130 drones in total, including some decoys, one person in the Donetsk city of Kramatorsk was killed and two others injured in attacks on residential and industrial areas, the city's mayor said. Another person was killed in strikes on similar targets in Odesa, its regional governor said. While heavy fighting continued along the front line in Ukraine, Kyiv's military said on Tuesday that its forces had also been engaged in combat operations in Russia's Kursk region – despite Moscow saying it had defeated a Ukrainian incursion there. Although both sides continued to exchange heavy fire, Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine and Russia had each exchanged 205 prisoners of war, in one of the largest such exchanges of the war and the fifth so far of 2025. It comes just a fortnight after the two sides carried out their largest prisoner swap of the war so far, reportedly exchanging more than 500 prisoners. A month earlier, both sides each returned a further 175 prisoners. 'Our people are free. Our people are home,' said the Ukrainian president. 'Today, Ukraine has brought back 205 warriors. Young and older men from almost all types and branches of the Armed Forces. Defenders of Mariupol and the entire front line. 'They have been scattered across many Russian regions, imprisoned within a system whose only purpose was to torment them and destroy their humanity ... Every day, we fight for our people. We will do everything to bring each and every one of them home.'
Telegraph
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Moscow closes airports after drone strikes day before Xi Jinping arrives
Moscow has been forced to close all of its airports after the Russian capital was targeted by a swarm of Ukrainian drones for the second night in a row. The city is busy preparing for the annual Victory Day celebrations on Friday, which officials have promised to be the 'grandest' ever to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Xi Jinping will be among 20 world leaders attending the main parade in Moscow's Red Square – designed to show off Moscow's military might – despite security concerns and the cancellations of events elsewhere in Russia. His three-day visit will be used to discuss the development of the two countries' strategic partnership, the Kremlin says. At least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed on their approach to Moscow 'from different directions', causing no major destruction or injuries, said Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow's mayor. Flights were halted at all four of Moscow's airports for several hours and a number of regional airports were closed, Russia's aviation watchdog said. At least 105 Ukrainian drones were intercepted and destroyed over 11 regions last night, according to Russia's defence ministry. Ukrainian drone attacks on Monday had also disrupted flights to the city. Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, has said that his country cannot guarantee the safety of foreign delegations joining the celebrations in Moscow. 'Our position is very simple for all countries travelling to Russia on May 9: We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation, because we don't know what Russia will do these days,' he said. Vladimir Putin last week declared a three-day ceasefire between May 8 and 10 to coincide with the event. But Mr Zelensky has dismissed the 72-hour truce offer as a 'theatrical performance' designed to protect Moscow during the parade. Instead, he called on Russia to commit to a US-proposed immediate and unconditional 30-day ceasefire. Xi will be joined by Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela's president, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president of Brazil, and several of Putin's European allies, including Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian president. Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, said he would also be in Moscow for the occasion, despite Kaja Kallas, the EU's top diplomat, warning the union's member states against attending. But uncertainty still surrounds Aleksandar Vučić, the Serbian president, who had pledged to attend but has suddenly fallen ill. Brussels had warned Mr Vučić that his presence would violate EU membership criteria and could risk hurting Serbia's accession process to the 27-member bloc. India's Narendra Modi will not attend the parade because of the growing tensions with Pakistan following a deadly attack in Kashmir last month. Victory Day is one of the most important dates in Russia's calendar, acting as a tribute to the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany, in which 27 million Soviet citizens died. During Vladimir Putin's 25 years in power, he has helped turn May 9 into a grandiose nationwide event celebrating patriotism, statehood and the military, which has swelled in size since the start of the war in Ukraine. A grandiose military parade will take place on Moscow's Red Square, where Putin addresses the nation. Smaller regional parades will take place across the country. Next to the Russia-Estonia border crossing in Ivangorod, Russia appears to have set up massive screens and a stage to blast its Victory Day commemorations into the neighbouring EU country. Footage filmed from the Estonian side of the Narva River showed the installations pointed directly at Estonia. The stage is adorned with a picture of a Soviet soldier and the phrases 'We Remember!' and '1945-2025'. The screens are decorated with the ribbon of St George, a Russian military symbol that is commonly used to show support for the invasion of Ukraine. Air threats every night But the deployment of most of Russia's military hardware and personnel has limited the scale of the parade and festivities in the past three years. Moscow has also not ruled out that North Korean troops – thousands of which helped Russia oust Ukrainian forces from its Kursk region will take part in the Red Square parade for the first time. The Kremlin has also been forced to cancel the Victory Day parade on the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea for the third year in a row, citing 'security concerns'. The southern Russian region of Krasnador has also called off the celebrations. 'An air threat is announced almost every night. Of course, we cannot risk the residents of Krasnodar, those who come to the parade, the participants in the parade,' said Mikhail Razvozhaev, Krasnador's regional governor .
