Russian airports are facing extraordinary disruption after a sustained wave of Ukrainian drone activity brought chaos to Moscow’s airspace.
Passengers have endured delays lasting for hours and, in some cases, more than a day, fuelling anger over Vladimir Putin’s refusal to end the war.
The Kremlin leadership has also faced accusations of spreading “lies” after claiming that Russian forces had “liberated” frontline settlements that Ukraine says remain under its control.
Videos circulating online show exhausted travellers sleeping on terminal floors at four Moscow airports. Together, the airports have reportedly experienced more than 1,000 hours of closures this month.
At some terminals, check-in workers were seen in tears as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s threat to disrupt air traffic around the Russian capital appeared to take effect.
Sheremetyevo Airport recorded more than 100 disruptions early in the day, while Vnukovo reported around 150 delayed or cancelled flights.
Ukraine launched dozens of drones towards Moscow in an apparent effort to overwhelm air-defence systems and paralyse flights across the capital.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said: “Seventy-five drones heading towards Moscow have been destroyed.”
A woman said online that she had been waiting 30 hours for her flight to Tyumen in Siberia.
A large crowd of passengers was left stranded at a Russian airport after alleged Ukrainian drone attacks triggered lengthy flight delays.
A departures board at a Russian airport showed the majority of flights cancelled.
“Emergency services specialists are working at the crash sites,” Sobyanin said.
One passenger responded with apparent sarcasm: “We have to endure it. Before the [war], the situation was much worse.”
Another passenger posted a blunt message directed at Putin: “**** Putin.”
A 34-year-old woman said: “My holiday is completely ruined. The Kremlin is to blame for this.”
The airport disruption came as Donald Trump once again took a step critics said could benefit, rather than weaken, Putin’s war effort.
Trump signed an executive order temporarily blocking “hellish sanctions” approved by Congress against Russia over the conflict.
The move followed concerns that proposed tariffs of 500 per cent on Russian energy exports could disrupt Trump’s plans to increase the supply of Russian diesel to international markets.
The US president is seeking lower fuel prices ahead of America’s midterm elections on November 3.
Ukraine also struck Russia’s largest gas-condensate processing plant in Surgut, about 2,600km (1,615 miles) from the border. The targeted Gazprom facility can process up to 12 million tonnes a year.
Smoke rose from the Chernomyrdin Surgut Condensate Stabilisation Plant owned by Gazprom in remote Khanty-Mansi region
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Sheremetyevo Airport was hit by more than 100 disruptions early today while Vnukovo Airport suffered 150 delays or cancellations
Kirill Dmitriev, envoy for Russian President Vladimir Putin, on Monday described Mr Trump’s decision to waive the US sanctions and tariffs targeting Russia’s energy revenues as a ‘historic moment’.
Mr Dmitriev said: ‘The Trump administration’s suspension of the Graham Act is an important and truly historic moment.’
He added that the sanctions would have caused ‘serious damage first and foremost to the US economy and global markets’.
The move by Mr Trump followed the reported partial blocking of Starlink’s internet service to the Ukrainian armed forces and threats to halt intelligence sharing with Kyiv, steps criticised by Mr Zelensky.
There is speculation their relationship is now at ‘breaking point’.
Mr Putin and his top war commander General Valery Gerasimov sought to persuade Mr Trump that he is on the point of major war breakthroughs – yet they were accused of ‘lies’.
General Gerasimov claimed the ‘liberation’ of key frontline hubs Dobropillia, Oleksiievo-Druzhkivka and Serhiivka, as well as the destruction of a 2,000-strong Ukrainian force encircled in the Kharkiv region.
They fictitiously claimed the entire Luhansk region was in Russian hands – as they have falsely claimed before.
Mr Putin – wearing his commander-in-chief’s military uniform – said: ‘Overall, I note a positive trend in the actions of the force groupings….
‘The pace of advancement has quickened, as evidenced by the results achieved in carrying out combat missions…..’
He boasted of the ‘capture of the city of Dobropillia’ when it is partially controlled by Ukraine, and said: ‘The liberation of Donetsk People’s Republic remains, without a doubt, one of our primary objectives.’
Even Russian pro-war channels accused Moscow of making an AI video of a soldier waving a Russian flag in blitzed Dobropillia.
He has so far missed 14 separate deadlines for taking control of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, and has recently lost territory here.
General Gerasimov told Putin Russian forces were already three miles from Zaporizhzhia.
Military Informant channel indicated the claim was nonsense and said: ‘There is simply no point in picking all this apart.’
Meanwhile, Ukraine staged a devastating 1,615-mile strike at Russia’s largest facility for producing oil and gas condensate mixtures in Siberian city Surgut – Mr Putin’s oil capital.
Smoke rose from the Chernomyrdin Surgut Condensate Stabilisation Plant owned by Gazprom in remote Khanty-Mansi region.
Russian forces inflicted more agony on Ukraine overnight as Mr Putin seeks to switch off electricity, water and heating for winter.
A power plant was hit in Zhytomyr, a metals plant in Kryvyi Rih, Mr Zelensky’s birthplace, and a steelworks in Zaporizhzhia.
Russia dropped FAB-250 aerial bombs on Sloviansk, hitting a residential building where one was killed and ten wounded, with searches underway amid the rubble.
