Follow-Up: Drones Force All Four Moscow Airports to Restrict Flights on October 23: 85 Cancelled, 229 Delayed at Sheremetyevo, Over 340 Disrupted Across the Hub
MOSCOW — On October 23, drone threats forced all four of Moscow's main airports to restrict flights, with passengers at Sheremetyevo moved into shelters and hundreds of flights cancelled or delayed. GSM previously reported on Ukrainian strikes against targets inside Russia the same day; this item covers the civil-aviation side of that day.
The Kyiv Independent, citing flight-tracking service FlightRadar24, reported 85 flights cancelled and 229 delayed at Sheremetyevo over the day, and more than 340 flights delayed or cancelled across the Moscow hub. Twenty-five Moscow-bound flights were diverted to St. Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport and 13 more to Nizhny Novgorod.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said air defenses shot down drones headed for the capital, but reports differed on the number: the Kyiv Independent and the New York Post reported 17, while The Moscow Times reported 21 over a two-hour period. This article carries both figures without choosing between them.
Russia's civil aviation authority restricted operations at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky. At Sheremetyevo, passengers were moved into shelters and some were taken off aircraft; TASS reported the all-clear at Sheremetyevo at around 5 p.m. local time, while Vnukovo and Domodedovo resumed flights under a clearance system at 4:43 p.m. In the evening, restrictions were imposed again at all four airports over a renewed drone threat before being lifted once more.
The IQ-quarter tower in Moscow City, which houses several Russian government ministries, was also evacuated; TASS later reported, citing emergency services, that the alarm there had been false. As of publication, no Ukrainian comment on the Moscow airport disruption had appeared in public reporting.
Source: GSM·USA
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 莫斯科谢列梅捷沃国际机场D航站楼内景（资料图）。图片：A. Savin，CC BY-SA 3.0，取自维基共享资源。
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