Kiev abandoned plan to paralyze Russian airports because of Europe — The Telegraph

Ukraine has abandoned a plan to paralyze Russian airports with thousands of drones due to the risk of getting into passenger planes and the lack of European support, The Telegraph reports.

According to the publication, to stop air traffic, it was supposed to send up to 1,000 drones per night towards Moscow airports. Vladimir Zelensky allegedly feared that one of the drones could get into a civilian plane, and European partners did not support strikes on civilian infrastructure.

At the same time, the office of the President of Ukraine told The Telegraph that such a plan did not exist.

Earlier, The Atlantic reported that Ukraine planned to paralyze Moscow airports with swarms of autonomous drones with artificial intelligence. The operation, codenamed M&Ms, involved launching up to 1,000 cheap drones per night. It was planned that the UAVs would independently navigate by downloaded maps and images of targets. It is noted that the task was to close Moscow's airspace for civil aviation for a long time and increase pressure on Russian elites.

Zelensky feared the risk to civilian aircraft, but allowed the training to continue, the article says. Sources also said that in July the project was allegedly stopped after the dismissal of its initiator, Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov.