The Atlantic: Zelensky authorized a plan to swarm Moscow’s airports with 1,000 drones — after warning it could harm civilian aircraft and passengers. His office calls the account ‘total nonsense.’
Ukraine’s military drew up plans to strike Moscow’s airports with a swarm of 1,000 small AI-guided drones, two sources told The Atlantic on condition of anonymity.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky authorized a plan to launch a swarm of 1,000 AI-guided drones at Moscow's airports, according to sources cited by The Atlantic. The objective was to ground the airports long enough to compel foreign airlines to suspend service, thereby applying additional pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin's administration to return to peace negotiations.
However, Ukrainian President Zelensky expressed concern that this operation could endanger civilian aircraft, passengers, and airport staff, and thus approved the preparations. Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's defense minister at the time, spearheaded the project, securing Western funding and assembling a team of Ukrainian programmers to build the AI targeting system.
The operation was named M&Ms, a nod to the numerous small, inexpensive, and nearly identical drones required. However, the development of this plan was interrupted upon Fedorov's dismissal. Ukraine's presidential office categorically denies having prepared any drone-swarm attacks against Russian airports, stating, "That’s total nonsense."
The Ukrainian military's sole aim regarding civilian airports is to compel Russia to maintain the "Carpet" emergency protocol, thus disrupting flight schedules.
Written by urgent.news from Meduza (English)'s reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
