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.’

The Atlantic reports that Ukraine's military drafted a plan, code-named M&Ms, to send 1,000 small AI-guided drones against Moscow's airports, aiming to ground foreign airlines and pressure Russia's elite into pushing for peace talks. Two anonymous sources say President Volodymyr Zelensky was briefed, worried aloud that civilian aircraft and airport staff could be harmed, and authorized preparations anyway. Then-defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov reportedly secured Western financing and assembled programmers for the targeting system before the project stalled following his dismissal; reviving it would reportedly take about three months.

Ukraine's presidential office flatly denies any such attack was prepared, calling the account 'total nonsense' and saying its only aim regarding civilian airports is forcing Russia to repeatedly declare its 'Carpet' airspace-closure protocol. The claim and the denial cannot both be fully true, and nobody involved has an incentive to clear that up.

Separately, Russian forces struck Kyiv overnight with missiles and drones, killing at least 15 people and damaging homes, a school, and a kindergarten, with further drone strikes hitting the city again that evening.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.