By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Moscow’s major airports were closed down temporarily on Sunday following sustained Ukrainian drone attacks in the Russian territory, a development which saw at least 140 flights cancelled, officials said.
According to the Russian defence ministry, more than 230 Ukrainian drones were downed in its territory since Saturday morning, including 27 over the capital, Moscow.
According to Russia’s aviation watchdog, the four major airports serving the capital were disrupted, and more than 130 flights also had to be redirected. All have since resumed normal operations, it noted.
Russia’s Association of Tour Operators (Ator) said on Sunday that Moscow airports were closed 10 times in 24 hours due to the strikes.
The Kaluga region, southwest of Moscow, was also affected. Russia’s defence ministry said it had intercepted 45 drones since Saturday morning, resulting in Kaluga International Airport also being temporarily closed.
Russia’s defence ministry said drones were also shot down over regions near the Ukrainian border, including Rostov and Bryansk, as well as over the Black Sea. No fatalities were reported.
This is not the first time that Ukrainian drone attacks have caused travel disruption in Russia.
In May, at least 60,000 passengers were stranded at airports across the country after Kyiv launched more than 500 drones in a 24-hour period, according to Russia’s defence ministry.
Regional officials in Ukraine said two people died after Russian air strikes in different parts of Donetsk, while a 78-year-old woman died after residential buildings burned down in Sumy.
Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 18 out of 57 Russian drones overnight into Sunday, while a further seven drones were lost after their radars were jammed.
As well as Sumy and Donetsk, other front-line areas of Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk were attacked, as was Zaporizhzhia.
Several homes were damaged or destroyed overnight in Donetsk due to a Russian attack.
The latest attacks come as the Kremlin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was ready to move towards a peace settlement with Ukraine but that Moscow’s priority was to “achieve our goals”.
“President Putin has repeatedly spoken of his desire to bring the Ukrainian settlement to a peaceful conclusion as soon as possible. This is a long process, it requires effort, and it is not easy,” he said in a televised interview.
It has been nearly three-and-a-half years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed a new round of talks with Moscow, aimed at restarting negotiations that halted last month.
