The first direct passenger flight from Moscow to Pyongyang since the mid-1990s was set depart on Sunday evening.

The eight-hour, 6,500-kilometer (4,040-mile) flight, operated by private Russian carrier Nordwind Airlines, was due to take off from Moscow's Sheremetyevo Airport at 19:00 local time (18:00 CEST).

The 440 places on the Boeing 777-200ER aircraft quickly sold out, Russian state media claimed, with tickets costing 44,700 rubles ($563, €479). However, the AFP news agency reported that nine tickets were still available on the airline's official website on Sunday morning.

Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia has granted Nordwind Airlines permission to operate flights between the two capital cities twice a week, although the Russian transport ministry said that flights would operate only once a month to begin with in order to "help build stable demand."

A return flight from Pyongyang to Moscow is scheduled for Tuesday, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Flights follow reopening of train connection

The flights represent another sign of the deepening ties between Russia and North Korea. Russia and North Korea have increased diplomatic, economic and military ties in the wake of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kyiv and its Western allies have accused North Korea of supplying Russia with artillery and ballistic missiles to strike Ukrainian cities, while Pyongyang has deployed more than 10,000 troops to help repulse a Ukrainian incursion into Russia's Kursk region.

Previously, the only direct air route between Russia and North Korea has been flights by North Korean carrier Air Koryo from Pyongyang to Vladivostok in Russia's Far East three times a week.

A direct train connection between Moscow and Pyongyang was reopened on June 17 this year after being suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 10,000-kilometer (6,200-mile) journey takes eight days.

Russian naval parade canceled on 'security' grounds

Meanwhile, the Russian government said on Sunday that an annual navy parade in St. Petersburg was canceled for unspecified "security reasons."

Authorities in the northwestern port city canceled the parade on Friday with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying on Sunday that "security comes first."

President Vladimir Putin reintroduced Russia's "Navy Day" in 2017 after an almost four-decade absence. In a video message published on Sunday, he praised the "courage" and "heroism" of Russian marines involved in the war of aggression against Ukraine since February 2022.

He said the military's most important aim was to "protect the sovereignty and the national interests of the fatherland" and that the navy plays an "important role" in this.

The Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday that around 100 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted over Russian territory, at least ten of which were close to St. Petersburg, which temporarily closed its airport.

Further south, Ukrainian drone and missile attacks have effectively forced Russia's Black Sea fleet to abandon its bases in Crimea and retreat further east.

The fleet's flagship, the Moskva, was sunk by Ukrainian forces on April 14, 2022, becoming the largest Russian warship to be sunk since the Second World War.

Edited by: Jenipher Camino Gonzalez