THIS is heart-stopping moment the world’s largest cargo plane skims Moscow roof tops to dodge a Ukrainian drone swarm.
Locals were terrified to see the hulking Antonov-124 of Russia’s Defence Ministry looming just above their heads.
The enormous Antonov-124 skimmed rooftops to avoid a Ukrainian drone swarm[/caption]
Footage shows the enormous plane swooping down over Moscow’s skyline.
It passes directly over residential tower blocks – appearing to miss them by a whisker from the street.
A deafening metallic screech fills the air as the beast lumbers by, near the city’s Vnukovo airport.
The close call came as dozens of Ukrainian kamikaze drones targeted Moscow overnight, wreaking chaos with flights this morning.
Russian air defences scrambled to shoot down the incoming unmanned weapons in one of the largest Ukrainian attacks on Moscow since the outbreak of war.
Footage showed an explosion in a car park in Reutov – nine miles east of the Kremlin – on a rare night when the war came to the capital.
Putin’s loyal news outlets reported: “The pilot was deliberately flying at a low altitude due to Ukrainian UAVs in the sky.
“Residents of New Moscow heard a loud roar and were a little scared when they saw the plane over the houses.”
It was not initially clear whether the Antonov had been landing or taking off from Vnukovo.
The giant plane – a key part of Putin’s war machine – is 226ft long with a wingspan of 240ft, and weighs a whopping 450 tons.
Moscow mayor Sergey Sobyanin said at least 34 drones had been shot down as the strikes continued this morning.
The city’s major international air hub, Sheremetyevo, was forced to suspend departures and arrivals – as were airports at Kazan and Nizhnekamsk.
A Dubai to Moscow flight was forced to landing in a different city, where passengers were given mattresses to sleep on the terminal floor after a three-hour wait on the plane.
Some 20 flights were forced to reroute from Moscow to St Petersburg.
One passengers on ultra low-cost Russian airline Pobeda complained: “There are 300 of us,” as they were stranded in St Petersburg.
They said: “There’s no food, no alcohol, only water, and everyone’s battery chargers are dead.
“The flight was rescheduled several times.”
The drama in Moscow followed the major airports in Copenhagen and Oslo being forced to close by malicious drone buzzing.
President Zelensky has since claimed that mysterious drones were part of a Russian sabotage operation.
Copenhagen Airport, the busiest in the Nordic region, was closed for four hours last night while Oslo Airport shut down operations for three hours.
Meanwhile, Russia staged devastating new attacks across Ukraine – once more killing civilians.
A missile strike on Tatarbunary in Odesa region left one woman dead and three people injured as five trading kiosks exploded into flames.
A hotel as well as postal and telecom buildings were hit, along with a community centre.
A fire following a Russian missile attack in the Odesa region overnight[/caption]
Firefighters battle the blaze sparked by Putin’s bombs[/caption]
Six Russian aerial bombs smashed into a residential building in Zaporizhzhia, killing one woman.
Local official Ivan Fedorov said: “The Russians struck the regional centre with aerial bombs at night.
“They hit private housing and industrial infrastructure facilities.”
Putin’s forces also bombarded Druzhkivka in Ukrainian-held Donetsk region causing power outages.
The latest strikes come as Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky are due to meet later today in New York at the UN General Assembly.
