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MOSCOW, Aug 11 (Reuters) – The airspace over two Russian airports was temporarily closed on Friday, with all arrivals and departures suspended, in a move that the RIA state news agency said was caused by suspected drone flights.
The airspace over Moscow’s Vnukovo airport and over Kaluga airport, some 150 km (95 miles) southwest of the Russian capital, later reopened, TASS news agency reported.
“From 10.50 a.m. (0750 GMT) the restrictions on flights were removed. At the current time the airport is working normally,” TASS quoted a source at Vnukovo airport as saying.
Earlier, the airport had said it was compelled to suspend all flights “for reasons beyond the control of the airport”, adding that some flights had been redirected to other airports in the Moscow region. It gave no further information.
Moscow’s mayor later said a drone had been shot down over the Russian capital. It was not immediately clear if this was linked to the closure of the airports.
Drone air strikes deep inside Russia have increased since a drone was destroyed over the Kremlin in early May. Civilian areas of the capital were hit later in May and a Moscow business district was targeted twice in three days earlier this month.
Russia said on Thursday that it had downed 13 Ukrainian drones seeking to attack Moscow and also the largest city in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
In recent days, Ukrainian remotely piloted boats, also referred to as drones, have attacked a Russian fuel tanker and a navy base at Russia’s Novorossiysk port on the Black Sea.
Ukraine typically does not comment on who is behind attacks on Russian territory, although officials have publicly expressed satisfaction over them.
(Reuters)
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