A passenger plane carrying Russian citizens, en route to Saint Petersburg, was forced to make an emergency landing in Estonia after a Ukrainian drone attack disrupted operations at Pulkovo Airport.
Emergency Landing of a Plane Carrying Russians
Aircraft Forced to Land in Tallinn
A passenger aircraft operated by the Egyptian carrier AlMasria Universal Airlines, carrying Russian nationals, was forced to make an emergency landing in Estonia on Sunday, August 24, following a nighttime Ukrainian drone attack. The plane, which departed from Sharm El-Sheikh, was redirected to Tallinn’s airport due to the temporary closure of Pulkovo Airport, as stated by Margot Holts, head of communications and marketing at Tallinn Airport. The aircraft landed in Tallinn at 5:33 local time and departed for Saint Petersburg approximately six hours later.
Ukrainian Drone Attack on Russia
A Ukrainian drone strike conducted overnight caused a power reduction at Russia’s Kursk Nuclear Power Plant. The attack reportedly damaged a transformer, cutting the operational capacity of one of the plant’s blocks by half. No injuries were reported, and the resulting fire was extinguished. Radiation levels remained within permissible limits. The Kursk plant, one of Russia’s largest, is located in Kurchatov, a city with about 40,000 residents in the Kursk region, approximately 60 kilometers from the Ukrainian border and 500 kilometers from Poland. The drone attack also triggered a fire at the Ust-Luga oil terminal in the Leningrad region, though no casualties were recorded. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, Ukrainian drones targeted installations across ten Russian regions, including areas near Moscow, with 57 drones reportedly destroyed in the attack.
Droned Crashed Near the Estonian Border
On Monday, an unidentified drone crashed near the Estonian border. Estonian border services had previously tracked one or multiple similar objects over Lake Peipus, where the Estonia-Russia border runs. However, officials are unsure whether the incident involved a single drone or several. According to Ivan Posledov, a representative of the Estonian Border Guard cited by ERR, the first object was detected around 5:20 AM and disappeared from radar over Russian territory shortly after. Later, another drone was tracked and crashed into Lake Peipus, approximately six kilometers from Estonia’s border. Estonian authorities clarified that the drone did not fly toward Estonia. It remains unclear whether the two drones were the same or separate. The military did not comment on the incident. Estonian media also noted that Ukrainian drones had previously attacked the oil terminal in Russia’s Ust-Luga port, near the Estonian border.
Source: Gazeta, ERR portal; Russian Ministry of Defense
