Zelensky was reportedly offered a plan to attack Moscow airports with thousands of drones — the Atlantic

Ukrainian officials allegedly proposed to President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year a plan to attack Moscow airports with thousands of drones per day.

This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing The Atlantic.

According to two sources familiar with the publication, the plan called for launching up to 1,000 drones per day against airports in Moscow and its surrounding area. The plan envisioned using cheap autonomous drones equipped with AI-based guidance systems — they were designed to locate and strike targets without operator involvement.

“The idea is to close Moscow’s airspace to civilian flights for an extended period,” said one official familiar with the plan.

When the plan was allegedly presented to Zelensky in winter, he expressed serious concerns. According to the source, the president feared that the drones could hit a civilian airliner, with passengers, airport staff, or crew members among the dead or wounded. Nevertheless, eager to find a pressure point on Russia that could restart the peace process, Zelensky allowed preparations for the strikes to continue for several months — through spring and into early summer.

By mid-spring, the covert operation had advanced far enough to receive the code name M&M’s. However, in July the planning was put on hold — after Zelensky dismissed, according to sources, the “chief organizer” of the operation, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.

According to The Atlantic, Fedorov had worked on the plan for most of the year: he helped assemble a team of Ukrainian programmers to develop AI-based guidance systems and secured funding from Ukraine’s European partners for the mass production of autonomous drones.

One source expressed hope that Ukraine’s new defense minister, Yevhen Khmara, would continue implementing the plan.

“We will try. Technically it is possible. The project can be restarted with a new team, but in my view it will take about three months,” the source said.

An official from the Office of the President denied the existence of such a plan in a comment to the publication.

“This is complete nonsense,” he stated.

As RBC-Ukraine reported, on the night of August 18, Moscow and the Moscow region came under a massive drone attack. Shortly afterward, it emerged that around 10,000 people in the Moscow region had been left without power — the first such report from Mosoblenergo since the beginning of the year. On the night of August 19, Moscow also came under a drone attack, prompting several airports, including those serving Moscow, to temporarily restrict operations.