Third Day Running: Ukrainian Drones Paralyze All Moscow Airports – Over 280 Flights Canceled

At around 2:00 PM local time on October 23, Moscow’s airports began suspending arrivals and departures one after another. The cause: a large-scale drone attack. Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin quickly reported 17 drones shot down on approach to the city. But drones still got through: Sheremetyevo declared an air raid alert and evacuated passengers to shelters. BBC Verify confirmed photos of drone debris on the runway.

By 4:40 PM, restrictions were being lifted. But at 5:25 PM, airports closed again. Sobyanin added another 4 drones downed. Airports reopened only in the evening, but schedule chaos lasted through the night.

This is the third straight day the Moscow aviation hub has operated in emergency mode.

The night of October 21–22: a record attack

The previous night, 630 drones were heading toward the Moscow region. Russian air defense claimed to have shot down 163 on approach to the capital, and a total of 808 drones across the country overnight. Two people were injured in the New Moscow area and one in Lipetsk.

After that, airports never fully recovered: October 22 saw mass cancellations again. And on October 23, another strike.

Numbers that speak for themselves

In the first 14 days of October, Moscow’s four airports were closed for a total of 101 hours. For comparison: in all of September, it was 46 hours. In half a month, downtime has more than doubled.

The monitoring channel Exilenova+ published photos of the aftermath. The Atlantic, citing two sources, reported that the Ukrainian operation to disrupt Russian airports is “only beginning” and could become even larger.

What officials say

Sobyanin acknowledges the attacks and reports drone counts, but offers no systemic assessment. Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency says restrictions are imposed “to ensure flight safety, which is the priority.” Ukraine does not officially comment — standard practice in this war. But President Zelensky warned back in early September: “Russian airspace will effectively be closed.” It seems that prediction is coming true.

What this changes

Moscow is effectively becoming a front-line city. The sky above the Russian capital is no longer safe. Regular drone attacks paralyze key airports, forcing thousands of passengers to change plans and airlines to incur losses.

The question is no longer whether Ukraine can repeat such attacks — it has done so for three days straight. The question is how long Russian air defense can hold, even partially. And what the Kremlin offers its citizens in place of safe skies.

So far, the answer is: nothing.