Moscow airports shut down for second consecutive night after Zelensky's warning on Russian airspace
Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo suspended flight operations for a second consecutive night following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's public warning that Russian airspace is becoming fully dangerous for civil aviation. Ukraine formally notified the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and called on member states to ban civil flights over Russia, drawing an updated ICAO conflict-zone safety statement and sharp rejections from Russian officials, including Vladimir Putin.
Key points
- Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo suspended arrivals and departures for a second consecutive night; Rosaviatsia reported temporary restrictions at Moscow-region airports.
- Flightradar24 recorded 21 cancellations and 235 delays at Sheremetyevo and 22 cancellations and 94 delays at Vnukovo during the disruption.
- On 1 September, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned airlines and insurers that Russian airspace is becoming fully dangerous because of the war and Ukraine's retaliatory use of drones.
- On 2 September, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Ukraine had informed ICAO about growing threats in Russian airspace; Minister for Development of Communities and Territories Mykola Kalashnyk sent a letter to the ICAO Secretary General calling for a full ban on civil flights over Russia, citing Article 51 of the UN Charter.
- ICAO issued an updated statement on 2 September flagging long-range weapons, drones, GNSS interference and modern air defense systems as threats to civil aviation and reaffirming a ban on the use of weapons against civil aircraft.
- Rosaviatsia published a NOTAM declaring all Ukrainian documents on Russian airspace legally invalid; Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin said authorities would not allow major disruptions to civil aviation.
- Vladimir Putin called Zelensky's statements a "claim to state terrorism" and threatened strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure; Aeroflot shares fell more than 5% after the warnings.
Why it matters
The repeated overnight shutdowns at Moscow's main airports, with hundreds of cancellations and delays, mark an unusual disruption of civil aviation inside Russia. Zelensky's direct warning to international airlines and insurers raised the legal and financial stakes for any carrier still using Russian airspace, and Ukraine's escalation to ICAO produced an updated international statement on conflict-zone safety, signaling formal recognition of the threat. The exchange escalated diplomatically, with Putin rejecting the warnings as "state terrorism" and threatening Ukrainian energy infrastructure, while Russian aviation stocks fell sharply.
What happened
Moscow's Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports suspended arrivals and departures for a second consecutive night, with Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) reporting temporary restrictions at Moscow-region airports. According to Flightradar24, 21 flights were cancelled and 235 delayed at Sheremetyevo, and 22 cancelled and 94 delayed at Vnukovo. The disruptions followed a 1 September warning from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Russian airspace is becoming fully dangerous for civil aircraft because of the war and Ukraine's retaliatory drone use; Zelensky said Ukraine does not intend to attack passenger planes but urged airlines and insurers to take military risks into account. On 2 September, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha announced Ukraine had informed the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of the threats, and Minister for the Development of Communities and Territories Mykola Kalashnyk wrote to the ICAO Secretary General calling for member states to ban civil flights over Russia, citing the right to self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter. ICAO issued an updated conflict-zone safety statement the same day, identifying long-range weapons, drones, GNSS radio-frequency interference and modern air defense systems as threats and reaffirming the prohibition on the use of weapons against civil aircraft. Rosaviatsia responded with a NOTAM declaring all Ukrainian documents on Russian airspace legally invalid, and Transport Minister Andrey Nikitin said authorities would not allow significant civil aviation disruptions. Putin dismissed Zelensky's statement as a claim to "state terrorism" and threatened strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure; Putin's adviser Anton Kobyakov insisted Russian airspace "remains safe." Head of Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation Andriy Kovalenko called the terrorism accusation strange coming from the leader of a country that itself carries out terrorist actions. Zelensky said on 2 September that the first airlines had begun refusing flights to Russian airports, and Aeroflot shares fell more than 5%. Temporary restrictions were also introduced that night at Zhukovsky (Ramenskoye), Gelendzhik, Sochi, Penza and Saratov airports.
How Ukrainian sources describe it
Most coverage came from Ukrainian outlets and framed the story around Zelensky's warning and the resulting disruption at Moscow airports, with headlines directly attributing the shutdowns to his warnings. Several pieces highlighted the diplomatic escalation, emphasizing Ukraine's formal notification to ICAO and its call for a blanket ban on civil flights over Russia. Ukrainian reporting paired Putin's "state terrorism" characterization with a rebuttal from the Center for Countering Disinformation accusing Russia itself of terrorist actions, and noted the more than 5% drop in Aeroflot's share price as evidence of the warning's market impact. One Ukrainian-cited report from Atlantic journalist Simon Shuster described the episode as the launch of a previously planned Ukrainian operation using AI drone swarms to block Moscow airports.
How international sources describe it
The single non-Ukrainian perspective in the supplied set focused on ICAO's update to its conflict-zone safety recommendations in response to Ukraine's official warning, framing the event as a multilateral aviation-safety matter rather than as a story about Moscow airport shutdowns.
Where reporting differs
Reports conflict on the number of drones Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said were destroyed heading toward the capital overnight on 3 September: several Ukrainian outlets cited 37 drones shot down, while others cited 10. Rosaviatsia also asserted that Russian air transport and ground infrastructure continue to operate normally and that Ukrainian documents have no legal force, a position that sits in tension with the same period's repeated overnight shutdowns of Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo, hundreds of cancellations and delays, and Zelensky's claim that airlines had begun refusing flights to Russia.
Background
Zelensky framed the danger as the result of Russia's war and Ukraine's retaliatory use of drones and missiles in Russian airspace, while saying Ukraine does not intend to target passenger aircraft. Ukraine invoked its right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter in its letter to the ICAO Secretary General. ICAO's 2 September statement specifically flagged long-range weapons, drones, GNSS radio-frequency interference and modern air defense systems as threats to civil aviation and reaffirmed that use of weapons against civil aircraft is prohibited under the Chicago Convention. One cited report described the episode as the start of a previously planned Ukrainian operation using AI drone swarms to block Moscow airports.