Russia shut down the airspace of its Vnukovo airport in view of drone attacks on Pskov Airport on Wednesday. Besides, all flights to and from Pskov Airport will be cancelled for today in order to assess the condition of the runway, state news agency TASS quoted Region Governor Mikhail Vedernikov as saying on a social media platform.
Russia's Defense Ministry accused Ukraine of targeting five Russian regions with drones in the early hours of Wednesday in what appears to be the biggest drone attack on Russian soil in 18 months. According to the Defense Ministry, more drones were also shot down over the regions of Oryol, Bryansk, Ryazan, Kaluga and the Moscow region surrounding the Russian capital.
As per the governor, the authority has cancelled the flights in order to assess the condition of the runway, if damaged brutally. An unconfirmed Russian media report claimed four Ilyushin 76 transport planes were damaged at the airport.
"The defence ministry’s forces are repelling a drone attack on an airport in Pskov," the governor wrote on Telegram. "More detailed information will follow after a meeting of the crisis center, which I will chair personally.".
Notably, Pskov is close to Ukraine-- nearly 600km away from the border region, but it shares a close boundary with Estonia.
No casualties
"As to the airport’s schedule of work, a decision has been made to cancel all flights for today, until the possible damage to the runway is assessed. According to preliminary assessments, it was nothing serious, but it is hard to make sure at nighttime," the governor said.
"If everything is fine, the airport will resume its work as normal on Thursday," Vedernikov added. Further, he added that no casualties were reported.
In a similar incident, the civil aviation authority on August 21 said it temporarily closed all four major Moscow airports following an alleged drone strike on the capital city. The incident on Friday was the third time in the past month that this district of Moscow has been struck by drone debris, CNN reported.
