The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was shocked by the sudden death of Russia's former transport minister Roman Starovoit, news of which broke hours after President Vladimir Putin had sacked him. Starovoit was found dead in his car outside Moscow with a gunshot wound and the principal hypothesis is that he took his own life,

Roman V. Starovoyt, the transport minister, had governed the Kursk region before Ukrainian forces occupied part of it in 2024.

The flight disruption appears to have been triggered by security concerns over buzzing Ukrainian drones, which led to a switch-off of Russian mobile signals.