All four airports serving Moscow suspended flights on Friday afternoon, October 23, after drone alerts over the Russian capital, according to Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya and multiple news reports. Restrictions on arrivals and departures were imposed at Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky at about 2:05 p.m. Moscow time, citing flight safety.

Source: DW via Scoop

Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said air defences shot down 17 drones heading toward the city that afternoon, and emergency services were working where debris fell. Sheremetyevo declared an air alert and directed passengers to safe areas, while airlines cancelled, delayed or diverted flights, with St. Petersburg's Pulkovo and other airports receiving diverted aircraft.

Source: TodayPress TV

Rosaviatsiya later said Vnukovo and Domodedovo resumed accepting and dispatching flights under a clearance regime at 4:43 p.m. Moscow time, while no change was announced at Sheremetyevo or Zhukovsky at that point. Reports said dozens of flights were delayed, cancelled or diverted during the closure, and backlogs continued as operations resumed.

Source: Particle News summary of Rosaviatsiya statements

German broadcaster DW reported that the four Moscow airports have had to shut down operations almost daily in October because of repeated Ukrainian drone attacks, with closures lasting up to nine hours on some days, citing the independent investigative outlet Agentstvo. In early September, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine would seek to cut off the airspace around Moscow and warned airlines and insurers that Russian airspace would become unsafe.

Source: DW English

Ukraine had not commented on the specific Friday attacks in the reports cited here, and claims about drone numbers come from Russian officials. Ukrainian airspace itself has remained closed to civilian flights since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022.