Ukraine Drone Attacks Disrupt Russian Airports, Internet, For 3rd Day In Row

Ukrainian drone attacks have disrupted life in western and southern Russia - including the Moscow region - for the third day in a row, forcing the closing of major airports, cancelling flights, stranding tens of thousands of passengers.

Perhaps even more impactful, Russian authorities have been forced to shut internet service in wide swaths of the country for fear the Ukrainian drones are using the Russian service to help guide themselves. The result of these attacks has been disruption of daily life at a cost in millions of rubles in lost revenue - and a reminder to Russians of the war's cost. JL

Mary Ilyushina reports in the Washington Post:

Large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks have rattled multiple Russian regions for the third consecutive day, grounding flights, disrupting internet access and stretching the country’s air defense systems. The Ukrainian drone attacks repeatedly paralyzed aviation in and around Moscow and regional hubs in western and southern Russia. Ukrainian drones also hit for two days in a row “the only manufacturer” of batteries installed on aircraft bombs. It also makes key batteries used in other equipment, including Iskander-M missiles and sea-based cruise missiles. Persistent Ukrainian drone raids hit the Kremlin's war effort, inflict multimillion-dollar losses on local economies and disrupt daily life.

Large-scale Ukrainian drone attacks have rattled multiple Russian regions for the third consecutive day, grounding flights, disrupting internet access and stretching the country’s air defense systems thin.

 

Russian officials claimed more than 700 drones were intercepted within the past 72 hours, nearly 100 of them near the capital. The attacks, while far less destructive than Russia’s missile barrages on Ukrainian cities, still demonstrate Ukraine’s evolving use of this low-cost, high-impact technology.

The Ukrainian drones are striking deep into Russian territory, and although the damage is limited, they are disrupting day-to-day life in a jarring reminder to Russians far from the front lines that the war is not confined to the trenches.

Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russia, though disruptive to Russian civilians, still pale in comparison Russia’s constant attacks on Ukrainian civilian areas, both in terms of the type of weaponry, the level of destruction and the number of civilian casualties. From late Friday to early Saturday, Russia attacked Ukraine with 250 drones and 14 ballistic missiles, including some made in North Korean, injuring eight and sparking six fires in different districts of Kyiv, according to Ukrainian authorities.

 

Ukrainian authorities declined to comment on the number of drones they have sent, but an official with Ukraine’s defense and security forces told The Washington Post that Ukrainian forces send more drones into Russia than the latter states publicly.

“It also shoots down fewer than it claims. Even Russian propaganda bloggers point this out,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. “The aim of Ukrainian attacks is to hit Russian military facilities, as well as any facilities which supply its army or are key to its economy, and therefore are a source of funds for its war economy.”

The uptick in activity comes after Russia, on May 18, staged its own largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war, destroying homes and killing at least one woman just a day before Russian President Vladimir Putin was scheduled to discuss a proposed ceasefire with President Donald Trump in a phone call . The Ukrainian drone attacks have repeatedly paralyzed aviation in and around Moscow and several regional hubs in western and southern Russia. On Wednesday night, Rosaviatsiya, the country’s civil aviation authority, closed the skies over the capital, halting operations at all four major airports — Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky.

Flight restrictions have been enacted more than 20 times since the current wave of attacks began this week, with Domodedovo airport offline for about 15 hours, local media reported. While Rosaviatsiya insisted there was “no collapse” at the airports, the scenes of long queues and grounded planes have drawn comparisons to disruptions ahead of the Victory Day celebrations in early May, when Russian authorities said they intercepted more than 200 drones over western and central parts of the country.

Elsewhere this week, drone strikes have caused visible damage. In Yelets, in the Lipetsk region, nine people were injured and 20 apartments damaged, according to local officials. Drones also hit an industrial zone on Thursday, sparking a fire at the Energia battery plant.

 

In a statement Friday, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed that Energia was the intended target and said it is “the only manufacturer” of batteries used in correction modules installed on aircraft bombs. It also makes key batteries used in other equipment, including Iskander-M missiles and sea-based cruise missiles, the statement added.

In the Tula region, more than 20 residential buildings have sustained damage over two days of drone assaults. The regional governor, Dmitry Milyaev, said 53 drones had been shot down there alone.

On Thursday, Putin called a local official from the Kursk border region, Nikolai Volobyev, who was injured after a drone fell on his car. State media reported that it was the fourth time he had come under a drone attack.

To mitigate the threat from incoming drones this week, Russian authorities jammed mobile internet in at least six regions, paralyzing local economy. It is believed that the drones may use local mobile data networks for navigation.

 

“This is intended to complicate the orientation of enemy drones in space. The Ukrainian Armed Forces often supply them with Russian SIM cards that connect to local cell towers amid electronic warfare,” Rybar, a Telegram channel run by prominent military blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, said on Friday.

Photos and videos posted by Muscovites on social media showed electronic-warfare systems deployed in central Moscow amid a surge in attacks. The equipment was spotted on bridges leading up to the Kremlin. Mobile service in the city center has reportedly been disrupted.

The Russian military has reportedly used a similar technique to penetrate and confuse Ukrainian air defenses by installing Ukrainian SIM cards into their Geran drones, which frequently target Ukrainian cities.

Using Russian SIM cards would enable Ukrainian drones to approximate their location by pinging nearby cell towers as they traverse the Russian airspace and help drone operators adjust future routes, said Mikhail Klimarev, a cybersecurity and telecommunications expert.

 

“Another thing is that it can and does transmit some intelligence. Let’s say I send a drone to some place, and as an operator I can track it bypassing cell towers,” Klimarev said. “If it for some reason doesn’t respond, and no information emerged that it had carried out a strike, there would be grounds to think there is some kind of air defense that needs to be bypassed, so the next flight is adjusted.”

Ruslan Leviev, a military analyst with the Conflict Intelligence Team, said shutting down mobile internet is a temporary fix because it is not effective against drone attacks that follow a preprogrammed route and do not require any mobile communications.

“The suggestion is that mobile communications could be used to obtain data on where the drone is currently flying and to obtain the results of its attack, that is, the final footage of how it approaches the target and attacks it,” Leviev said. “When they jam mobile communications, it helps only in the moment. As soon as you turn the service back on, everything is restored, and you can attack again.”

  

The major downside of internet blackouts imposed by regional officials is the heavy toll they take on the local civilian economy, disrupting businesses and services that rely on mobile internet — from taxis and ATMs to ticket validators on public transport.

“In Moscow right now, it’s often very difficult to use car-sharing apps, for example, because the app thinks the car is located somewhere at the airport,” said a 45-year-old Moscow resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution for speaking with Western media. “Home internet works, but mobile internet is bad. It’s all inconvenient, but it would be a sin to complain, as compared to Ukraine everything is fine here.”

One Russian official suggested bringing back landline phones to Russian homes in response to mobile internet blackouts to prioritize public safety.

 

“In the future, we need to return to wired radio in every home. We also need to restore wired telephones, and therefore the good wired internet of the 2000s. I am sure that cable television will again find a place in the consumer market,” parliamentary lawmaker Stanislav Naumov told a local outlet.

“At first, everyone who misses news from Telegram can be given a discount to get print newspapers,” he added in jest.

Klimarev, the telecom expert, argued that such persistent drone raids would keep Russian air defenses stretched and airport operations in near-constant disarray, which would inflict multimillion-dollar losses on local economies.

“From this point of view, just launching some drones, even decoys, in large quantities would already deal damage to the economy,” he said. “Even if UAVs fly without explosives, as soon as [Russian officials] turn off the internet, it’s already damaging and effective.”