Russia just lost control of the skies over its own capital
1 hour ago · 17 October 2026Share
The Nebo M is a Russian air defense radar mounted on a mobile trailer. File photo. Vitaly V. Kuzmin · CC BY-SA 4.0
Russia says it shot down more than 140 Ukrainian drones heading for Moscow overnight.
And 610 across the whole country.
Moscow's Mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, says they came in waves. 15 just after midnight. 14 more about an hour later. 15 after 3am. 25 after 5am. Then 75 at around 7am.
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View of Sheremetyevo International Airport. File photo. Rakoon · CC0
All four of Moscow's main airports shut down overnight. Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky. No flights in or out. A Pegasus Airlines flight from Antalya got told the airspace was shut just before it was meant to land. It got diverted to St Petersburg instead.
Sobyanin hasn't reported any damage or anyone hurt. Just crews working at the sites where drone debris came down. Ukraine hasn't said how many drones it sent, or confirmed Russia's numbers at all.
That's everything we know.
Why this matters
So here's the pattern.
This is at least the third time in ten days that drones have shut Moscow's airspace. Some outlets say third time this week. One says fourth. Nobody agrees on the exact count.
But look at the hours. Moscow's airports were closed for 101 hours combined in just the first two weeks of October. That's against 46 hours for the whole of September.
The night before this one, Sobyanin reported 94 drones over Moscow. Up to 200 flights delayed or cancelled. Two weeks ago, all four airports shut and Vladimir Putin's own plane couldn't land in Moscow. A few days after that, close to 500 drones nationwide and around 550 flights disrupted.
So this isn't one bad night. It's the latest night in weeks of this.
Ukraine hasn't said what it was aiming at. But the wider campaign has also hit oil refineries, data centres and military airfields deep inside Russia. So the pattern looks like Ukraine trying to disrupt Russian logistics, and show it can reach far behind the front line.
And Russia's account leaves a lot out. Sobyanin talks about debris sites, not damage. No figures on anyone hurt at all. The 610 figure nationwide can't be checked independently, and Ukraine hasn't said how many drones it actually sent or whether any got through.
So here's what we don't know. How many drones Ukraine launched. Whether any hit what they were aimed at. Whether there's damage to Moscow's airports or anything else. Whether anyone was hurt.
For the third time in ten days, Russia's capital couldn't get a plane in or out.
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