Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport evacuated as drone alarms halt flights across the capital

Evacuation at Sheremetyevo

Sheremetyevo, Russia's largest airport, was evacuated on Friday, 23 October, during a drone alarm. According to the airport, access to the security area of all terminals was restricted while staff helped people reach protected shelters. Some passengers were taken off aircraft to get to the shelters. The airport later said the alarm had been lifted and passengers would leave the shelters. Its press office also told travellers not to use lifts, stay on board aircraft or stand near windows, and it banned filming and photography.

Restrictions across Moscow's airports

Russia's civil aviation agency Rosaviatsia said the restrictions were introduced for safety reasons and gave no further detail on the cause. The restrictions follow weeks of growing problems at Russian airports linked to Ukrainian drone attacks. In early September, Ukrainian president Wolodymyr Selenskyj said Russian airspace would be effectively closed. Accounts differ on how many airports were hit: some report all four Moscow airports affected, while DIE WELT reported that operations were suspended at three of the four. Blick named Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Domodedovo in the capital and said Zhukovsky, about 35 kilometres southeast of Moscow, temporarily closed its airport. Aircraft heading for Moscow turned back or landed at other Russian airports, and some passengers were stuck for periods.

Drone counts and debris

Moscow mayor Siergiej Sobianin wrote on Telegram that Russian forces had shot down 21 drones over the capital since 13:38 Moscow time. RMF24 cited 17 drones shot down within two hours, while Blick reported almost 20 drones intercepted over Moscow airports since Thursday night. DIE WELT, citing the mayor, said at least 23 drones had been shot down about two weeks earlier, when operations at all four airports were briefly interrupted. Sobianin said crews were working at the sites where debris had fallen, without giving locations or damage details.

The Ukrainian OSINT channel Exilenova+ published a photo that it said showed drone wreckage on the Sheremetyevo grounds, and Russian authorities had not confirmed it. Flightradar24 data showed no aircraft over Moscow, nor over the neighbouring Tula and Kaluga regions, Smolensk, Tambov or other Russian regions bordering Ukraine. The Telegraph published unverified footage that it said showed a crash site on the Sheremetyevo tarmac.

Prisoner exchange on the same day

On Friday, Russia and Ukraine also exchanged 270 prisoners of war each, at a border crossing between Belarus and Ukraine, the route used for recent swaps. Zelensky wrote on X that 270 of our people were home, including soldiers from the armed forces, the National Guard and other units, as well as nine civilians. Many had been in Russian captivity since 2022, among them defenders of the southern port city of Mariupol. Five returnees had been presumed dead after a severe explosion at a Russian prison in Oleniwka in Donetsk region in 2022. Russia's defence ministry said it received 270 Russian soldiers, who would receive medical and psychological care in Russia.

Ukrainians returned270

Russian soldiers received270

Ukrainians returned

270 people

Russian soldiers received

270 people

Data from the article text

The alleged "M&M's" operation

Reports describe a Ukrainian drone operation codenamed "M&M's" that was reportedly prepared to disrupt civil flights for a long period, mainly at airports serving Moscow. According to the reports, the plan involved up to about 1,000 small, cheap and similar drones in a single night, and the name referred to their number and uniform look. The intended effect was not direct strikes on infrastructure but to make foreign airlines and insurers treat Russian airspace as too risky. That could partly cut Moscow off from international flights, which the plan's authors expected to increase pressure on Russian elites and the Kremlin. The plan is described only in these reports, and the sources do not quote an official confirming it.