Russian airports crippled in wake of nationwide Ukrainian Drone Barrage
On the eve of Russia’s May 9th propaganda festival, a Ukrainian drone offensive has grounded over 350 flights across Russia, stranding 60,000 passengers and laying bare the Kremlin’s ineptitude. Moscow’s major airports—Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, and Vnukovo—are currently frozen, alongside regional hubs in Kursk, Tula, Belgorod, Kaluga, Voronezh, Lipetsk, and Oryol. The Russian Defense Ministry boasted of downing 425 Ukrainian drones overnight, a figure echoed in posts on X, which highlighted the unprecedented scale of the attack. Yet, this supposed triumph did little to mask the chaos engulfing Russia’s aviation system, revealing the emptiness of Putin’s propaganda.
Images shared on X by Stratcom Centre depict the fallout: planes sat idle on rain-soaked runways at Vnukovo, their operations paralyzed by Ukraine’s strategic strikes. Inside Sheremetyevo, flight boards showed a litany of cancellations, while at Domodedovo, abandoned luggage littered the tiled floors. Stranded passengers, left without food, water, or basic facilities, turned violent—drunken mobs assaulted airport staff in scenes reminiscent of a 2010 Sheremetyevo incident where passengers attacked Aeroflot employees during weather delays, per Reuters. This time, the cause is Putin’s disastrous war, which has boomeranged to haunt his own people.
While the Kremlin claims to have neutralized 425 drones—a number also cited in X posts noting Russia’s struggle to counter Ukraine’s evolving tactics—it fails to protect its citizens. Russia continues its brutal assaults on Ukrainian civilians, killing four in Sumy and Odesa on May 6, per BBC, and targeting energy infrastructure, yet it cannot secure its own skies. Past drone strikes, like those damaging Moscow’s Ramenskoye district in September 2024 (Newsweek), highlight Russia’s porous defenses. Ukraine’s tactics, compared by former minister Tymofiy Mylovanov to the campaign against Russia’s Black Sea Fleet (Newsweek, September 2024), have brought the war to Putin’s doorstep. The Kremlin’s obsession with imperialist conquest has left its people vulnerable, its infrastructure in tatters, and its claims of military prowess exposed as a sham. Russia under Putin is a failing state, crumbling under the weight of its own aggression.