Russian airspace disrupted by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles. - Russian airspace disrupted by Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles.
In early July 2025, the skies above Russia's major cities were disrupted by a series of long-range drone attacks launched from Ukraine. The attacks, which targeted both military and civilian infrastructure, caused significant chaos and disruptions to flight traffic in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities.
The most affected airport was Moscow's Sheremetyevo, Russia's busiest air hub, which was forced to close for about seven hours. This led to the cancellation of 174 flights and delays to another 47, with around 80% of the canceled flights operated by Aeroflot, the Russian state airline. The disruption caused severe congestion, with many passengers stranded for over nine hours, some unable to disembark from planes, and airports overwhelmed to the point there were no free seats even in cafes or business lounges.
St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport also faced temporary restrictions and delays following drone incursions, with the airport suspending operations for several hours overnight before resuming flights. Flight operations in Kirow, nearly 800 kilometers northeast of Moscow, were also temporarily halted due to the attacks.
Russia's air defenses claimed to have shot down 120 Ukrainian drones overnight across multiple regions, including over Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, the strikes nonetheless caused significant operational paralysis at transport hubs. Other airports in western and central Russia also experienced disruptions due to the attacks.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin made statements about the incident, but no further statements from Russian authorities were provided in the current paragraph. Similarly, no new information about potential impacts, new flight operations, or further drone attacks or interceptions in other cities such as Pulkowo Airport near St. Petersburg, Kaluga, or Kirow were discussed.
The drone campaign demonstrated Ukraine's expanded reach and precision, hitting targets critical for Russia's military supply and aviation infrastructure, stranding tens of thousands of passengers, and exposing vulnerabilities in Russia’s air defense systems. The attacks on Russian soil occurred just days after Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Kyiv, marking an escalation in drone warfare where Russian civilians and infrastructure inside Russia itself have become directly affected by the conflict.
The situation remains tense, with ongoing drone exchanges contributing to instability in Russian air travel. As of the current report, the number of drones shot down or destroyed, and the number of drones intercepted by air defense in St. Petersburg, remain unspecified.
[1] BBC News. (2025). Major disruption at Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport after drone attacks. [online] Available at:
[1] The recent drone attacks, primarily targeting employment policy in the aviation sector, have been a subject of general news, politics, crime-and-justice, and war-and-conflicts, as they disrupted flight traffic in multiple cities, causing chaos and employment policy-related issues in major airports like Moscow's Sheremetyevo and St. Petersburg's Pulkovo.
[2] In light of these drone incidents, community policy discussions might focus on the development of measures to ensure the safety of civilians and infrastructure during times of war-and-conflicts, particularly in the context of the escalating drone warfare between Ukraine and Russia.
