Moscow airport briefly closed due to drone alert

Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport, located just southwest of the Russian capital, was closed for an hour overnight, TASS news agency reported on Friday morning, citing emergency services.

According to information from the Telegram channel 112, air traffic was halted due to a drone alert. Several flights, scheduled to land at Vnukovo, were diverted to the nearby Domodedovo airport. 

Air traffic at Vnukovo has been disrupted of late in connection with the early detection of Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow. The latest attempted attack was reported by Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin and the Russian Defense Ministry.

Air defense systems were activated at around 4am local time, Sobyanin wrote on Telegram. One drone was intercepted over Kaluga Region, southwest of the capital, and the other was shot down in the vicinity of the Central Ring Road, which separates Moscow city from the eponymous region.

Meanwhile, several media outlets have reported, citing witnesses, that a UAV crashed near a hydroelectric plant in the western part of the capital.

A video shared by Baza Telegram channel shows white smoke rising from the spot where the drone reportedly fell.