Sochi residents reported explosions

Air defense forces are repelling a drone attack on Sochi, the city's mayor announced. Residents heard sirens and explosions. Sochi Airport is closed to aircraft, and additional restrictions have been introduced at Krasnodar Airport.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on the night of September 13, restrictions were imposed on aircraft landings and departures at the airports of Volgograd and Gelendzhik, and then at the airports of Astrakhan and Krasnodar. In the morning, the restrictions were lifted.

Mayor Andrei Proshunin announced the threat of a drone attack on Sochi at 2:15 a.m. Moscow time today. He reminded residents of safety precautions, urging them to refrain from filming and posting on social media images of air defense operations.

Later, at 3:04 a.m. Moscow time, Proshunin reported that Sochi's air defense system was repelling the drone attack. "All services have been put on maximum alert (...) If you live near the coastline, do not go outside under any circumstances; stay in a closed, unglazed building," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

City residents reported hearing "about three explosions over Adler" and the sounds of drones flying overhead, which "appeared from the direction of Abkhazia," SHOT reports. A siren can also be heard in the city, according to ASTRA (they are listed as foreign agents by the Russian Ministry of Justice).

At 2:46 a.m. Moscow time, the Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsia) imposed temporary restrictions at Sochi Airport; aircraft arrivals and departures have been suspended, Rosaviatsia spokesman Artem Korenyako announced today.

"The restrictions are necessary to ensure flight safety," he wrote on his Telegram channel. According to the Sochi Airport online flight information, the departure of a flight to Bahrain, scheduled for 2:55 a.m. Moscow time, is delayed.

Two hours earlier, at 12:30 a.m. Moscow time, Korenyako announced that additional restrictions on aircraft arrivals and departures had been imposed at Krasnodar Airport, which resumed operations with restrictions since mid-September. According to these restrictions, civil aircraft flights in Krasnodar are limited to flights between 9:00 and 19:00 Moscow time; no passenger flights are operated late in the evening or at night.

As a reminder, on September 24, two people were killed and 14 others were injured following drone and unmanned boat attacks on Novorossiysk and Tuapse. In Novorossiysk, nine of the 12 injured were hospitalized, and three others received outpatient treatment. In Tuapse, two people were hospitalized in moderate condition, one of them a minor.

That day, people in Novorossiysk, Tuapse, Gelendzhik, and Sochi were ordered to leave beaches and embankments due to the threat of drone attacks from the sea and air. However, in Sochi, some vacationers returned to the sea, despite the fact that the threat of drone attacks had not been eliminated. Social media users called this behavior reckless.

Civilians in the coastal areas of Kuban resorts risk becoming accidental victims in drone and unmanned boat attacks, so the evacuation of vacationers from the beaches was a justified precautionary measure, experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot" confirmed.