Putin's Plane Couldn't Land in Moscow Because of Ukrainian Drones, and the Kremlin Won't Say Whether the President Was On Board

The Il-96 aircraft with registration RA-96025, on which Vladimir Putin flew to Turkmenistan on October 8 for the summit of the Commonwealth of Independent States, could not land in Moscow on its return on October 9. According to data from the flight-tracking service Flightradar24, the plane flew over the capital but, because of restrictions at the airports, continued on to St. Petersburg.

It landed at Pulkovo airport, and only half an hour later took off again for Moscow. Whether Putin was even on board at the time of the diversion has not been confirmed. The Kremlin has officially said nothing, neither about whether the president was on the plane nor about the problems with the Russian delegation's return.

Five state aircraft couldn't land right away

The problem wasn't just one plane. According to independent Russian media, a total of five aircraft of the special flight detachment "Rossiya", which carries the country's top leadership, could not land in Moscow right away. At least three were returning from Turkmenistan, among them three Il-96s, the type the Russian president flies in. The two planes registered RA-96020 and RA-96022 circled over Moscow and the Moscow region before landing at Vnukovo at 18:06 and 18:21 Moscow time.

At the time, the Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Zhukovsky airports were operating under temporary restrictions because of the threat from Ukrainian drones. Many passenger flights were delayed or canceled, and traffic only began to normalize in the evening, when the restrictions were lifted.

That is the detail that makes the story bigger than one diverted flight. If the planes of the country's top leadership have to circle over their own capital, and one of them has to land more than 600 kilometers away, how well protected is the sky over Moscow really? There is no official answer.

In the Balkans we know that the silence of those in power is often an answer in itself. The war Moscow started more than four years ago is now reaching the runways of its own airports.