Chaos and uncertainty. Russia faced a partial collapse of air traffic on May 7-8

Ukraine's Systemic Strike

This is a consequence of Ukraine's systematic use of drones, presumably to disrupt air traffic in the aggressor country on a large scale.

These days, Ukraine has conducted the most massive and prepared operation to destabilize Russia. Our forces hit Russian military-industrial enterprises and infrastructure. However, the most painful for the Russians was air travel disruption.

At several Russian airports, including the central ones, the authorities introduced the special plan to close an airspace at once due to the threat of Ukrainian drone attacks, which involves suspending air traffic so that air defense does not shoot down its aircraft.

Airports in big Russian cities are "down"

Three of the four major airports in the Russian capital — Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Domodedovo — have come to a standstill. However, the collapse has arrived to other cities. We can talk about at least a partial collapse of the air transportation system in the entire European part of Russia.

Flights were delayed and canceled at the second busiest airport in Russia, Pulkovo in St. Petersburg, Koltsovo Airport in Yekaterinburg, Striginovo Airport in Nizhnyi Novgorod, and Gagarin Airport in Saratov.

The geography is also striking: delays and cancellations occurred in the Russian south, in Sochi, the Siberian city of Novy Urengoy, and even Kamchatka. Russian officials were forced to respond to the loss of control with some kind of information and squeezed out the following numbers: 60,000 passengers affected by delays and about 350 delayed and canceled flights. But this is nothing more than a lie to sweeten the pot.

As Texty.org.ua found out, on May 7, 1023 flights were delayed, and on May 8, a record was broken — 1153 flights were delayed! To find it out, we downloaded the data with the schedule and, accordingly, all the delays at Russian airports.

Far-reaching consequences

The consequences of Ukraine's action cannot be overstated. In these days of May, Russian social media have been flooded with photos and videos of airports blocked by Ukrainian drones. This may be just the tip of the iceberg of Russian problems.

It's no secret that the main connection between remote Russian regions and the metropolis is by air. If airplanes were removed from the sky, it would take at least a week for a Russian official to get to the Far East, for example. The destruction of air traffic within Russia is the path to its overall disintegration, especially in the most remote Russian regions.

Of course, the Ukrainian side will draw the appropriate conclusions from this operation, and we will probably soon see even more Ukrainian drones and even fewer airplanes in the Russian sky. Ukrainian drones do not have to carry explosives; it is enough for them to circle over the main Russian airports or fly in their direction.

airport attack drones eng moscow