Russian authorities announced the shutdown of all airports in and around the capital Moscow after Ukrainian drones hit the business district on Wednesday. Latest reports say that as part of the ‘carpet plan’, the flight operations have been suspended and all the traffic is being diverted. The ‘carpet plan’ is activated in an event of ‘aerial threat’.
A Reuters report said that Moscow’s Mayor has confirmed the latest drone attack. A pall of smoke could be seen rising from the attack site. The drone attacked a building located in central Moscow. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that the Russian air defence successfully downed another drone in western region of the capital city.
The central district of Moscow has suffered several drone strikes in recent times. On Saturday, one of the buildings situated in the central district was attacked by a Ukrainian drone. This building is just 5 km from the Kremlin. While Russia has been confirming the drone attacks and shooting down the UAVs around the national capital, it has still not been able to give details of the origin sites of these drone attacks.
Experts say that Kyiv launching drone attacks from its territory all the way to Moscow raises several questions around the Russian air defence.
Earlier on Tuesday, there were reports that the Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian supersonic bomber at an airbase near St Petersburg. A photo of a plane up in smoke had gone viral on the internet. The BBC and several media outlets confirmed that the aircraft in the photo was indeed a Tupolev Tu-22M3 supersonic long-range bomber.
The fleet of this aircraft has been used by the Russian forces for attacking the cities in Ukraine. The attack on the airbase deep inside the Russian territory shows how Ukraine is trying to change the air supremacy factor in this war. Kyiv has been very vocal about getting F-16s from its allies to counter the formidable Russian lineup.