Flight operations at 4 Moscow airports temporarily suspended due to
Ukrainian drone attack
[May 06, 2025]
By The Associated Press
Russian forces intercepted more than 100 Ukrainian drones fired at
almost a dozen regions of Russia, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said
Tuesday, in an attack that forced all four airports around Moscow to
temporarily suspend flights.
Nine other regional Russian airports also temporarily stopped operating
as drones struck areas along the border with Ukraine and deeper inside
Russia, according to Russia's civil aviation agency, Rosaviatsia, and
the Defense Ministry. It was the second straight night that the Moscow
region reportedly was targeted.
Two people were injured in the Kursk region, according to local Gov.
Alexander Khinshtein, and some damage was reported in the Voronezh
region.
The Russian reports couldn’t be independently verified.
The drone assault comes two days ahead of a unilateral 72-hour ceasefire
in the more than three-year war announced by President Vladimir Putin to
coincide with celebrations in Moscow marking Victory Day in World War
II.
The day celebrating Moscow’s defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945 is Russia’s
biggest secular holiday when foreign dignitaries will gather in the
Russian capital.
Meanwhile, Russian forces overnight fired at least 20 Shahed drones at
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-0largest city near the border with Russia,
injuring four people, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram.
The drones started a fire at the biggest market in Kharkiv, Barabashovo,
destroying and damaging around 100 market stalls, he said.
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Seven more civilians were injured elsewhere in the Kharkiv region by
Russian glide bombs and drones, Syniehubov said.
Putin last week declared a brief unilateral truce “on humanitarian
grounds” from May 8. Ukraine has called for a longer ceasefire.
Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and
full 30-day halt in the fighting by insisting on far-reaching
conditions. Ukraine has accepted it the proposal, President
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday at the White House that the
brief truce “doesn’t sound like much, but it’s … a lot if you knew
where we started from.”
Foreign leaders who have confirmed their attendance at the Victory
Day festivities in Moscow include China's President Xi Jinping,
described by Putin as “our main guest.”
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, another top ally whom Putin
has courted, had been expected in Moscow but he canceled his trip
amid tensions with Pakistan.
Other guests include Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico,
who has openly challenged the European Union’s policies over
Ukraine. Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic also has accepted an
invitation, his first trip to Russia since the invasion, but his
attendance was uncertain after he became ill.
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