Russian airports closed amid alleged Ukrainian drone and balloon raid

According to FlightRadar24, an open-source air traffic monitoring website, multiple Russian government aircraft from the Rossiya Special Flight Detachment, which transports top-level Russian government officials, were scheduled to fly into Moscow's airports on Oct. 9. At least one of the aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-96-300PU flying from Türkmenbaşy in Turkmenistan to Vnukovo Airport in Moscow, was reportedly forced to divert to St. Petersburg, according to FlightRadar24.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin claimed "the Ministry of Defense's air defense forces repelled an attack by 15 UAVs" on the Russian government's messaging app, MAX. A number of unknown balloons, which both Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels claimed were launched by the Ukrainian military, were also seen in the Russian skies. Local Russian Telegram channels showed mysterious balloons in the skies near Moscow, and air defense activity. Russian outlet BAZA claimed that, "reconnaissance balloons launched from Ukraine," were shot down over Yaroslavl Oblast, a region of Russia north of Moscow.

By 5:42 p.m. Moscow time, Russian wire service RIA Novosti reported that Domodedovo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky airports had reopened. On Sept. 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a plan to close Russia's skies. "There will simply be drones in Russia's skies on a scale that has to be taken into account," he said, as he warned "every airline that uses Russian airspace" against flying over the country. "The Russian sky will be de facto closed," he added. In the weeks following the announcement, Ukrainian drone raids have caused severe disruption to Russian air travel, but the result has fallen short of the complete closure Zelensky promised.