A UAV Attack Has Caused An Aviation Collapse In Moscow And St. Petersburg
- 6.07.2025, 13:11
Airports in the European part of the Russian Federation are paralyzed.
Yesterday Saturday, July 5, began with chaos at Russia's largest airports. Due to the Ukrainian drone raids at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, 174 arrival and departure flights were canceled and another 47 were delayed.
According to Rosaviatsia, 80% of the canceled flights were accounted for by airlines belonging to the Aeroflot group. Dialog.UA looked into the details.
A similar situation has developed in St. Petersburg's Pulkovo, where dozens of flights have also been canceled and delayed.
The disruptions also affected other major cities - from Sochi, Murmansk, Nizhny Novgorod and other regions, flights to Moscow and St. Petersburg were either postponed or canceled.
The drone attack has thus led to a large-scale disruption of air traffic in central and northwestern Russia.
Russian blogger and analyst Anatoly Nesmiyan (of El Murid fame) noted that what happened is a complete repeat of the situation recorded before May 9.
"A small number of Ukrainian drones, but arriving one after another for a long time, threw the entire aviation industry into a comatose state. The damage was done not by missiles, but by delays and forced landings, which completely overloaded air traffic control," he wrote.
He also drew attention to a new move by the Russian authorities - a mass shutdown of mobile communications and the Internet in response to the UAV threat.
"The losses from such a reaction turn out to be tens and hundreds of times higher than the cost of the drones launched. The economics of war is a specific thing, but in this case it played to the advantage of the attacking side," the blogger added.
The Russian Defense Ministry, as usual, reported on the "brilliant work of air defense." According to the official version, 120 Ukrainian drones were destroyed overnight. The credibility of this information is questionable.
The very fact of mass disruptions of flights indicates something else: Ukrainian drones are carrying out their task - not so much to destroy as to paralyze.
Even sporadic drones appearing in the skies above the regions force Russians to stop flights and urgently transfer flights to alternate airfields.
Ukrainian journalist Denis Kazansky commented on what is happening as follows.
"In Russia - the collapse of air traffic. Ukrainian drones have paralyzed flights throughout the European part of the country. They don't even need to hit targets - just presence is enough. That's right. As long as there are no civilian flights in Ukraine, there shouldn't be any in Russia either. At least - up to the Urals," he wrote.
Ukrainian strategy demonstrates efficiency: in war conditions, even a few drones can bring down an entire sector of the enemy's economy. The direct damage is minimal, but the damage is colossal.
The Russian aviation system cannot cope with the new reality, and cutting off communications only adds to the chaos. And the further it goes, the more expensive each new Ukrainian drone will cost Moscow.