More than 100 flights delayed or canceled at Sochi airport after drone attack, plane refueling restricted
Sochi’s airport operated under restrictions for more than 11 hours after an overnight Ukrainian drone attack, with some flights diverted to other cities and the rest delayed or canceled. The strikes set two fuel depots on fire, one of which sits about 100 meters (330 feet) from the airport grounds, and blanketed the city’s sky in thick black smoke.
About 90 planes were unable to take off or land at Sochi’s airport on schedule, and another 27 inbound flights were canceled, according to calculations by the Russian Telegram news channel Ostorozhno Novosti. Passengers told the outlet that some Aeroflot flights from Sochi were rescheduled to September 8, or even September 21.
The airport also restricted aircraft refueling, the independent Russian news outlet Verstka said. A NOTAM notice issued on September 4 limited refueling to the operator LLC Lukoil, a restriction set to remain in effect until midday on September 5. An earlier notice issued that same day had reported refueling restrictions across all of the airport’s fuel operators.
The fuel problems could extend beyond aviation. Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev warned that the depot fire could complicate the situation at Sochi’s gas stations, and said authorities must prevent supply disruptions.
After Sochi residents complained about the black smoke, Rospotrebnadzor began checking air quality. Measurements in the Adler district and on the grounds of Sirius did not exceed permissible limits, the city administration reported.
The affected fuel depots had been protected by anti-drone netting, the independent Telegram channel Astra said. Panoramic images from Yandex Maps taken in 2026 show the netting installed around storage tanks at both the Rosneft facility and the Lukoil fuel depot, but it failed to stop the fire.
At Meduza, we are committed to transparency about our use of artificial intelligence in the newsroom. The story you’re reading was written by one of our living, breathing journalists and translated from Russian using an AI model configured to follow our strict editorial standards. This translation process is the result of extensive testing and refinements to ensure our English-language coverage is timely and accurate. A Meduza editor reviews every draft before publication.
If you find any errors in this translation, please contact us at [email protected].
To read Meduza’s exclusive content in English, please subscribe to our newsletter.