Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on August 23, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 22, 2026
Add as preferred source on Google
Russian air defences intercepted a drone near Moscow, causing several regional airports to suspend operations. The Defence Ministry reported intercepting 32 drones.
(Reuters) -Russian air defences on Saturday downed a drone headed for Moscow and specialists were examining fragments on the ground, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.
Several airports in central Russia suspended operations because of concerns over safe airspace, Russia's air transport agency Rosaviatsia said.
In a series of announcements over several hours, Rosaviatsia said operations had been suspended at airports in Izhevsk, Nizhniy Nolvgorod, Samara, Penza, Tambov and Ulyanovsk, east and southeast of Moscow.
Officials at the airport in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that dozens of flights had been delayed.
Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 32 drones in a three-hour period over a number of areas in the centre of the country.
(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Diane Craft and Andrea Ricci)
Air defense refers to the measures taken to protect a country from aerial attacks, including the use of military technology to detect and intercept threats such as drones or missiles.
Regional airports are smaller airports that primarily serve local or regional air traffic, providing connections to larger airports and facilitating travel within a specific area.
Flight operation suspension occurs when an airport halts all or some flight activities, often due to safety concerns, weather conditions, or security threats.
Explore more articles in the Headlines category
