60,000 air passengers stranded over massive Ukrainian drone attack

At least 60,000 passengers have been stranded at airports across Russia because of a massive Ukrainian drone attack, local officials say.

Russia’s Association of tour operators (Ator) says 350 flights have been affected since Tuesday evening in Moscow, St Petersburg, Sochi and several other cities.

The Russian defence ministry says 524 Ukrainian drones were destroyed in the past 24 hours – a record number if confirmed. No casualties were reported.

Ukraine says an overnight Russian drone and missile attack killed two people in Kyiv.

The barrage of strikes came as a self-declared Russian three-day ceasefire was set to begin on Wednesday night, ahead of a World War Two victory parade in Moscow on 9 May.

Kyiv has repeatedly rejected the truce idea as “theatrical play”, reiterating its call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire, which is also supported by Ukraine’s allies in Europe and the US.

Russia has issued a set of tough pre-conditions for any possible settlement – a move described by Ukraine and many European politicians as an attempt to prolong the fighting and eventually force Kyiv to capitulate.

On Wednesday, US Vice-President JD Vance said “we think they [Russians] are asking for too much”, in an apparent hardening of his stance towards Moscow.

“It’s very important for the Russians and the Ukrainians to start talking to one another,” Vance added.

He also took a far less strident tone towards Europe than he has in recent months, saying “I do still very much think the US and Europe are on the same team”.

Three airports serving Moscow – Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo and Domodedovo – suffered disruption, according to Russia’s tour operators association, which added that 110 flights had been cancelled in the capital.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said 19 drones had been shot down near the city since Tuesday evening.

In St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, 55 flights were either cancelled or delayed.

At the city’s Pulkovo airport, footage emerged of a queue of planes stuck on the runway on arrival. Passengers reportedly waited for hours to leave.

Airports at several other cities including Sochi, Kazan, Kirov and Nizhnekamsk also reported flight disruption.

Russia’s air traffic problems came as Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Moscow for Friday’s military parade in Red Square commemorating the 80th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.

A plane carrying Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic to Moscow had to make a brief emergency stop in Baku in Azerbaijan, because of drone attacks across Russia, according to local reports.

Vucic later resumed his flight, eventually landing in Moscow. Two Baltic republics, Lithuania and Latvia, had reportedly refused to allow him permission to cross their airspace.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, thought to be the only European Union leader planning to attend, complained that Estonia’s government had refused to allow him to fly over its airspace, which he said was extremely disruptive to his schedule.

The government in Tallinn said it had no intention of supporting the Moscow parade and had stressed to EU colleagues that taking part in Russian “propaganda events should be ruled out”.

Russia says 27 world leaders are travelling to Moscow. Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have already arrived.

A three-day ceasefire proposed by Putin last month was due to start at midnight Moscow time on Wednesday (21:00 GMT), to coincide with World War Two victory commemorations across Russia.

Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula illegally annexed in 2014.

US Vice-President JD Vance told an audience in Washington on Wednesday that he was not yet pessimistic that the Russians did not want an end to the war.

“We would like both the Russians and the Ukrainians to actually agree on some basic guidelines for sitting down and talking to one another,” he said.

President Donald Trump’s administration has been accused of trying to push Ukraine into making painful concessions in a bid to reach a ceasefire, while exerting far less pressure on Moscow.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for a “significant increase in pressure on Russia”, after an attack on Kyiv killed a woman and her son.

Emergency services were deployed across Ukraine, including in the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Zhytomyr, Kherson and Dnipro regions.

Earlier this month, Zelensky warned that Ukraine could not guarantee the safety of anyone travelling to Moscow for the parade.

“We cannot be held responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation,” he said.

He indicated the Kremlin might organise provocations during the Victory Day commemorations in Russia to discredit Ukraine.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry has warned against the participation of any foreign troops, calling it “unacceptable” and helping Moscow to “whitewash its war crimes”.

On the eve of President Xi’s arrival in Moscow, the Chinese leader hailed the “resilient” relationship between China and Russia.

China has sent 102 soldiers – the largest foreign military contingent among the 13 participating nations – to take part in Friday’s annual 9 May parade.

Victory Day celebrates Nazi Germany’s 1945 surrender to the Soviet Union during World War Two, remembered as “The Great Patriotic War” in Russia.

It is Russia’s most important public holiday, and Putin has repeatedly sought to draw parallels with the full-scale war he launched against democratic Ukraine.

His narrative has been rejected by Kyiv and Europe. “These people are not liberators of Europe, they are occupiers and war criminals,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

Europe and Ukraine mark Victory in Europe Day on Thursday.