More than 100 planes were grounded at Sochi Airport due to drone attacks

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the airport in the Russian city of Sochi due to widespread delays and flight cancellations caused by drone attacks on the Krasnodar Krai from June 14 to 17. Over the past 24 hours alone, the airspace over the city was closed four times due to the threat of drone strikes. 

As of the morning of June 17, more than 100 flights had been delayed due to the crisis, and some passengers were forced to wait for their flights for nearly two days, spending the night on travel mats right in the airport terminal. 

The delays affected both domestic flights to Novosibirsk, Perm, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, and Nizhny Novgorod, as well as international flights to Istanbul, Batumi, Yerevan, and Tbilisi; while passengers traveling to Moscow are being offered alternative transportation by minivan instead of flights. This large-scale disruption to the flight schedule comes amid statements by the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the mass downing of dozens of drones over Russian regions, including in the Krasnodar Krai, where successful attacks by the Ukrainian Defense Forces on local oil depots and refineries had previously been reported.