St. Petersburg, Russia

The Russian defence ministry said it carried out drills involving interceptor jets after St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport was shut for nearly an hour and diverted all the flights, on Tuesday (February 28). A statement by the defence ministry was issued hours after at least five flights from the capital city of Moscow to the Russian city of St. Petersburg were diverted and after the flight resumed operations. 

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According to the flight tracking website, FlightRadar24 a number of Russian domestic flights headed for the city's Pulkovo Airport were turned back to their departure points. The announcement was made on the government’s official Telegram channel without any further details about the previously unannounced drills conducted by the military in the area. 

Russia’s defence ministry said it had been conducting drills which involved the dispatch of multiple fighter jets in the country’s western air space. “During the training, air defence forces worked on the detection, interception and identification of targets, as well as interacting with emergency services and law enforcement agencies”, reported Reuters citing Russian media reports. 

It also said that fighter plans had flown sorties as a part of the drill. The previously unannounced drills caused several flights to reroute and led airlines to reschedule flight plans. An hour or so after the airspace was shut, the city government officials also took to the messaging platform and said, “The skies over St. Petersburg are open, all temporary restrictions have been lifted”. The flights began diverting from 11:00 am (local time) and by 12:00 pm (local time) they had resumed. 

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Russian media had previously reported that the airspace was shut after an unidentified object such as a drone had been spotted in the area, however, this claim has not been confirmed. During a press briefing after the flights had resumed Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on the incident or the causes and said Russian President Vladimir Putin has been made fully aware of the situation. Notably, Pulkovo which is around 15 kilometres south of central St. Petersburg, is Russia’s fourth busiest airport.

(With inputs from agencies) 

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