Simon Shuster: This is it. Zelenskyy officially launched Operation M&Ms to paralyze Moscow airports

On September 2, The Atlantic author Simon Shuster reported that Volodymyr Zelenskyy officially announced the start of operation M&Ms, the preparations for which the journalist had already reported in August.

"Zelenskyy officially announced the start of the operation known as M&Ms, about which we wrote last month in The Atlantic. One of the sources who initially told me about the plan confirmed this morning that it is indeed the one," Shuster wrote.

Zelenskyy himself did not publicly use the codename M&Ms. But on September 1, he stated that Ukraine would sharply increase the number of drones and missiles in Russian airspace.

"There will simply be such a number of drones in the Russian sky that will have to be reckoned with," he said.

Zelenskyy separately warned foreign airlines, insurance companies, and passengers who continue to use Russian airspace and key airports.

"Russian airspace will effectively be closed. The war that Russia started is closing its sky," he declared.

The head of Ukraine emphasized that this is not about deliberate attacks on civilian aircraft. The goal is to create such a constant threat around Russian airports that their operations would have to be regularly halted, and foreign carriers would themselves refuse to fly.

What is Operation M&Ms

The project was first described in detail by Shuster in The Atlantic in August.

The name M&Ms refers to the multitude of small, cheap, and almost identical drones necessary for the operation. According to the journalist's sources, Ukraine considered launching up to a thousand drones per night to overwhelm Russian air defenses and shut down Moscow airports for an extended period.

Initially, the plan involved using autonomous drones with artificial intelligence. Route maps and target images were to be loaded into their memory. During the flight, an onboard camera would capture the terrain, and an algorithm would compare what it saw with saved images, independently guiding the drone to the target – without human confirmation of the strike.

This raised serious doubts for Zelenskyy. According to The Atlantic, he feared accidental hits on passenger aircraft or civilian casualties. Therefore, the plan's authors proposed warning airlines in advance so that they would withdraw their liners from Russian airports.

Banking on Elite Discontent

The operation's goal was not only to disrupt air communication. Its authors hoped to isolate Russian officials, oligarchs, and other wealthy supporters of Putin from foreign routes.

Due to Western sanctions, European and American carriers no longer fly to Moscow, but Turkish Airlines, Emirates, and a number of airlines from China, Turkey, and Persian Gulf countries remain. Via Istanbul and Dubai, the Russian elite maintains convenient access to the rest of the world.

If these companies also stop flights, the authors of M&Ms anticipate, influential Russians may begin demanding a solution to the problem from Putin. In combination with other economic consequences of the war, this should push the Kremlin towards negotiations.

It was previously reported that preparations for the operation ceased in July after the dismissal of its presumed author — Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. However, Shuster now claims that the plan was indeed resumed and officially launched.

It is not yet clear whether the operation will be implemented exactly in its original form. But its political part has already begun: Ukraine has officially warned the world about the danger of flights to Russia and announced its intention to effectively close its airspace.

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