(Adnkronos) – A passenger plane bound for St. Petersburg was forced to make an emergency landing in Tallinn on the night of August 24 due to a Ukrainian drone attack on Russian territories. Estonian media, quoted by the Kyiv Independent, reported this. The plane, operated by the Egyptian company AlMasria Universal Airlines, had departed from Sharm El Sheikh and was only able to resume its flight to St. Petersburg almost six hours later. During the stopover in Tallinn, passengers and crew were not allowed to leave the aircraft. Margot Holts, head of communications at the airport, explained that the Pulkovo airport was temporarily closed, making the diversion necessary.
On the night of August 24, Ukrainian drones hit a gas terminal in the Leningrad region and a refinery in the Samara region. The attack on the liquefied gas terminal was confirmed by the SBU, the Ukrainian security service. Kyiv’s drone campaign, which in recent months has repeatedly disrupted civilian air traffic in Russia, is part of a broader strategy to destabilize Russian logistics well beyond the front line. In the first months of 2025, Ukrainian attacks would have already forced Russia to suspend airport operations over 200 times, a record since the beginning of the large-scale war.
