Ukrainian drone strikes on 5–6 July paralysed civil aviation across Russia, forcing the temporary closure of airports in more than ten cities. Russia’s Sheremetyevo hub in Moscow and Pulkovo in St. Petersburg were most affected, with angry crowds filling terminals as airlines scrambled to re-route traffic. By Monday morning, the disruption had delayed almost 2,000 flights and cancelled 485 more, according to industry data cited by Rosaviatsia and local media. Analysts put the cost to carriers at roughly 40 billion rubles (about US$285 million), while business daily Kommersant estimated more than 240,000 passengers were stranded over the weekend. Political fallout came swiftly. President Vladimir Putin dismissed Transport Minister Roman Starovoyt on 7 July and named deputy Andrey Nikitin acting minister. Russian news outlets later reported that Starovoyt, 53, was found dead at his home in an apparent suicide, though the Kremlin has not commented on the circumstances. The aviation chaos unfolded as Russia and Ukraine exchanged their largest drone barrages of the war. Moscow said it shot down more than 200 Ukrainian drones over the weekend and 91 more overnight, while Kyiv reported that a separate Russian volley of over 100 drones killed at least ten civilians and injured dozens. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, seeking to sustain pressure, announced new agreements with European governments and a U.S. defence contractor to scale up production of "hundreds of thousands" of drones in the coming year.