Passengers waiting for their flights at Sheremetyevo International Airport outside Moscow amid major flight disruptions on 7 July 2025. Photo: EPA/YURI KOCHETKOV

Russian airports have shut down at least 604 times due to air defence operations countering Ukrainian airstrikes since the start of the war, with 75% of closures occurring this year, Novaya Gazeta Europe has calculated.

Novaya Europe made its calculations based on announcements on the Telegram channel of Russia’s Federal Aviation Agency Rosaviatsia, also including flights that were redirected to alternate airports. As not all details are always published, the final figure is a minimum estimate, and the real number could be much higher.

Most of the shutdowns — 455 — have occurred this year. There were 149 shutdowns between 2022 and 2024, which is below 25% of total cases.

There are no official statistics publicly available on cancelled and delayed flights, and Rosaviatsia publishes only partial details. After studying this incomplete data, Novaya Europe concluded that at least 1,200 flights had been diverted to alternate airfields since February 2022, with most instances — some 736 — occurring this year.

Some 88 flights were diverted to alternate airfields during the period of particularly severe aviation disruption from 5 July to 7 July. Rosaviatsia said approximately 1,900 flights were delayed and 500 cancelled in that 3-day period alone. Novaya Europe estimates that over 400,000 passengers may have been affected over this period, basing calculations on a capacity of 180 to 220 seats per plane, with flights leaving on average 90% full.

July’s aviation disruption coincided with one of the largest coordinated Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.