Moscow airport targeted in kamikaze drone strike

Ukrainian explosive drones targeted the Russian capital city overnight, according to local authorities, as unverified footage appears to show uncrewed vehicles approaching one of Moscow’s main airports.

A brief video posted to social media on Sunday shows a flash as an unidentified object hits the roof of what appears to be part of Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, after an audible buzzing sound which can be distinctive of drone strikes.

In another clip, a loud explosion can be heard as pedestrians watch and move to take cover. Another video circulating online appears to show a cavernous room filling up with smoke.

Russian Telegram channel Mash posted a video it said showed the “moment of destruction of a Ukrainian drone near the capital’s Domodedovo airport,” adding that debris had fallen onto a nearby warehouse.

Ukraine has previously launched a series of drone attacks on the Russian capital, and has periodically used uncrewed aerial vehicles to target Moscow, along with other regions of internationally recognized Russian territory.

Kyiv damaged a series of buildings in Moscow in the summer of 2023, and has upped its drone strikes on wider Russian territory in recent weeks. Drone assaults have temporarily disrupted activity at Moscow’s major airports, including Domodedovo.

Russian authorities said the country’s air defenses had destroyed a slew of Ukrainian drones over the capital, including over Domodedovo, but did not specify the airport as a target.

Flight restrictions were placed on several of the city’s airports, Russian independent news outlet Astra reported, citing the country’s Federal Air Transport Agency. Russia’s state-backed news agency RIA Novosti then reported that the controls on aircraft taking off and landing at the airports had been lifted.

Newsweek has reached out to the Ukrainian military and Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.

Ukraine is contending with Russia’s almost constant drone and missile strikes on its key infrastructure. Kyiv’s air force said on Sunday it had shot down 14 kamikaze drones overnight.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said early on Sunday that air defenses in the Domodedovo area of the capital had “repelled an attack by two drones flying towards Moscow.” Sobyanin later said another three drones, including one over Domodedovo, were shot down by air defenses.

Debris fell, but there were no casualties nor damage, he said in a post to Telegram.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a separate statement on Sunday that its air defenses had shot down 35 Ukrainian uncrewed vehicles across its territory overnight, including four over the Moscow region. In a following update, the Russian government said it had destroyed another airborne drone over the capital at around 10:15 a.m. Moscow time (3:15 a.m. ET).

Russia shot down 17 drones over the country’s southern Krasnodar region, as well as three drones over the border Belgorod region, according to Moscow, and another three over Kursk, which sits north of Belgorod on the northeastern edge of Ukraine.

Another eight drones were intercepted across Russia overnight, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said.

Russian authorities in Krasnodar said “several” Ukrainian drones had targeted the Slavyansk oil refinery in the region and that a fire had broken out at the facility. One person died of a heart attack during the strikes, Russian officials later said, adding the blaze had been extinguished.

Ukraine has repeatedly zeroed in on Russia’s oil refineries, including several in the past week.

The strikes come on the final day of voting in Russia’s presidential elections, with President Vladimir Putin expected to solidify his grip on power for another six years in ballots not deemed free and fair by the international community.