Ukraine Developed Secret AI Drone Plan to Paralyze Moscow Airports

Ukrainian officials developed a secret operation, code-named M&Ms, to launch swarms of up to 1,000 AI-guided autonomous drones per night at Moscow's four major airports: Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo, and Zhukovsky. The plan aimed to force the closure of Russian airspace to international carriers, isolating Russian elites and pressuring President Vladimir Putin to negotiate a truce.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly allowed preparations to continue through early summer despite expressing reservations that the risk of civilian casualties could be characterized as piracy. The drones were designed to use map matching AI technology to identify targets and bypass Russian electronic jamming without the need for human pilots.

The operation was halted in July 2026 following the dismissal of Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov, the project's architect who had secured European financing and assembled the necessary programming teams. While a representative of the president's office denied the operation's existence, calling the reports complete nonsense and claiming Ukraine lacks the precise long-range weapons required for such strikes, sources indicate the project may be revived under the new defense minister, Yevhenii Khmara, who was approved by parliament on August 19, 2026.