Russian air defences down drone flying towards Moscow, regional airports closed

Russian air defences on Saturday downed a drone headed for Moscow and specialists were examining fragments on the ground, Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram.

Several airports in central Russia suspended operations because of concerns over safe airspace, Russia's air transport agency Rosaviatsia said.

In a series of announcements over several hours, Rosaviatsia said operations had been suspended at airports in Izhevsk, Nizhniy Nolvgorod, Samara, Penza, Tambov and Ulyanovsk, east and southeast of Moscow.

Officials at the airport in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, were quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that dozens of flights had been delayed.

Russia's Defence Ministry said its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 32 drones in a three-hour period over a number of areas in the centre of the country.