The main Moscow airport closed twice overnight
The main Moscow airport was closed twice in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday in parallel with Ukrainian drone attacks towards the Russian capital, the authorities said.
Traffic had first been suspended at Moscow-Cheremetievo airport from 1 hour to 4:07 a.m. (from midnight to 3:07 a.m. in Paris), before being stopped at 4:25 a.m., explained Artem Korenyako, representative of Rossaviatsia, the National Aviation Agency on Telegram. He then announced the resumption of traffic at 5:30 a.m., adding that the restrictions had been imposed “To guarantee the safety of commercial flights”.
These temporary closures had been decided after several detections of Ukrainian drones in the direction of Moscow from Tuesday afternoon. In the early hours of Wednesday, the mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobianine, reported in two distinct messages of nine devices slaughtered while they were flying towards the city.
Nearly thirty foreign leaders, including Chinese president, Xi Jinping, are expected in the Russian capital, where a large military parade should be held on Friday in the presence of Vladimir Putin, to celebrate 80 years of victory against Nazi Germany in the Second World War.
On Tuesday, Ukraine launched a massive attack of drones which had led to the suspension of traffic in Moscow airports and other big cities, such as Nijni Novgorod, Samara, Saratov and Volgograd. Activity at Kazan airport is still stopped on Wednesday, according to Korenyako.
