Carpet Plan and Communications Jamming: What is Known About the New Protracted Drone Attack

The Ukrainian military is conducting another protracted drone attack on Russia, as it did on May 7. Local residents and monitoring resources have been reporting drones in the sky, loud sounds, and air defense activity since the night. Complaints about the disappearance of mobile Internet soon followed.

The first to comment on the situation was the Governor of the Lipetsk Region Igor Artamonov . He emphasized that this measure was taken for security reasons. The head of the region reported that fixed Internet and Wi-Fi connections are operating normally.

“As soon as the situation allows, access to mobile Internet will be restored,” he promised .

As reported by Mash , mobile Internet and communications have disappeared in the Moscow region towns of Klin, Korolev, Shchyolkovo and Balashikha. Network failures are also being reported in Tula, Saransk, Vladimir and Lipetsk regions. NTV notes that similar problems have arisen in the Voronezh region.

According to the Baza Telegram channel, the network in Balashikha has been down since last night. Beeline reported that mobile communications in the Moscow region may work intermittently "for reasons beyond the operator's control." Megafon claims that the connection is working normally, but difficulties could have arisen "for external reasons."

All operators are experiencing interruptions. Judging by the comments of local residents, the problem persists.

Along with the communication interruptions came the consequences. Residents of the settlements where the outages are observed have problems with shopping and paying for goods. In the Tula region, taxi drivers are refusing orders due to difficulties with navigation, and the prices for rides have skyrocketed. This is reported by Tula with Ogonok .

Due to the security threat, the "Carpet" plan has currently been declared at the airports of Kaluga, Vladimir, and Ivanovo. Since the morning, temporary restrictions on arrival and departure are in effect in Yaroslavl and Kostroma - Rosaviatsiya representative Artem Korenyako has not reported the lifting of the ban.

Later, temporary restrictions were introduced at the airports of the capital's air hub: Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Zhukovsky. Korenyako announced the resumption of regular operations at the airports at 14:08.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, 127 Ukrainian drones were shot down and intercepted last night: 41 over Bryansk, 37 over Oryol, and 31 over Kursk Oblast. Six UAVs reached the Moscow region. The attack was also repelled in Vladimir, Ryazan, Belgorod, Tula, and Kaluga Oblasts and over the Black Sea.

From 4:00 to 8:00, 32 more drones were destroyed : 16 over Oryol, 10 over Bryansk, and six over Kursk Oblast. Over the next 3.5 hours, air defense repelled an attack by 39 more UAVs: 30 over Oryol, three over Ryazan, two over Kursk, and one each over Belgorod, Bryansk, Lipetsk, and Crimea.

According to monitoring resources and bans on aircraft takeoffs and landings, enemy drones are still in Russian airspace. The information was soon confirmed by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin .

"The air defense forces of the Ministry of Defense repelled an attack by three drones flying to Moscow. Emergency services specialists are working at the site of the fallen debris," he said .

According to Mash , the footage shows the destruction of the Lyuty drone in the Vidnovsky district. Thus, more than 200 aircraft-type UAVs have already been shot down.

The wreckage of one of the drones fell on the territory of the Vasilek kindergarten in Domodedovo.

"There are no casualties or damage. Children and teachers were evacuated to the basement of the building. Emergency services are working on the scene," said the city's mayor, Evgeniya Khrustaleva .

According to Shot , the drones were launched from the Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions, and the targets of the attack were industrial enterprises and sea ports. According to the source, about half of the UAVs were home-made with a wingspan of 1.5-2 m.

Oryol Region Governor Andrey Klychkov reported that the Bolkhov Semiconductor Devices Plant (JSC BZPP) and several private homes were damaged as a result of the night attack. As the name suggests, the company specializes in the production of semiconductor products. Mash claims that the plant was attacked by drones for the first time.

In an interview with Kommersant in 2020, Vyacheslav Poyarkov, CEO of JSC BZPP, spoke about increasing cooperation with defense industry enterprises.

“If in 2005 BZPP produced one product for defense purposes, now it produces 130,” he said then.

According to Mash, drones attempted to attack a chemical plant in the city of Aleksin in the Tula region — debris fell on the site. In the Kaluga region, UAVs were flying to an airfield in Yermoolino, and their debris fell nearby — without damaging the infrastructure.