Ukraine launched renewed drone attacks on the Russian capital and the nearby areas overnight into Sunday, triggering widespread transportation chaos.
The string of Ukrainian attacks disrupted the work of airports with hundreds of planes being diverted on Sunday morning. Over 130 passenger trains were delayed as of the morning of July 20, Russia’s state-owned railway operator RZD reported. Some 108 flights were delayed, and 29 cancelled in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo. Another Moscow airport Domodedovo saw cancellation of two flights and delay in 20 flights. Thirty-one flights were delayed in Moscow’s Vnukovo airport. Air travel in St. Petersburg’, Nizhniy Novgorod, Yarsollavl, Pskov and Kaluga was also stalled with dozens of flights cancelled or delayed overnight following drone and missile barrage. Overall, 160 flights were delayed, and 31 canceled overnight.
The disruption came as the Russian Ministry of Defense reported an escalating number of drone attacks. On July 19, the ministry claimed to have downed over 20 Ukrainian drones, and on the morning of July 20, it reported an additional 93 drones downed overnight. Multiple buildings sustained damage during continued Ukrainian incursions. In a residential neighborhood, two cars were burned, probably from debris of a downed drone. In the village of Golube, residents reported that the explosions were so powerful, they caused the walls and windows of their homes to shake.
