Drone Attack Interrupts Operations At Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport

Operations at Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport were interrupted for about 3 hr. in the early morning of July 4 after an attack by uncrewed aircraft on the Russian capital. 

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, four Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defense systems over Novaya Moskva—a large district on Moscow’s southwestern side where Vnukovo is located. Russian media reported that two of the aircraft were intercepted over the settlement of Valuevo, just a few miles south of the airport.

A fifth drone was suppressed by electronic warfare and crashed in Odintsovo district, north of Vnukovo, the military said. No casualties have been reported.

Vnukovo’s timetable showed that 15 incoming aircraft had been diverted away to Moscow’s two other international airports, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo, in the morning. Following the interruption, 23 arriving and 34 departing flights were delayed or canceled on July 4.

Vnukovo is the Russian capital’s third-largest airport. It handled 10.2 million passengers in 2022, less than half of the 24 million passengers it welcomed in 2019. In addition to passenger airlines, the airport is also home to a special terminal known as Vnukovo-2, which is a home base for the SLO Rossiya government air wing that serves Russia’s top government officials.

This was the first time a Moscow airport has had to interrupt operations due to a military threat since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, 11 airports in southern Russia have remain closed since the outbreak of fighting due to their proximity to the war zone.