Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned of the dangers of flying through Russian airspace, telling airlines that “there will be (Ukrainian) drones in Russian skies for as long as the war continues”.
“Today we are warning all airlines using Russian airspace, all insurers and all those still serving major Russian airports: Russian airspace is becoming extremely dangerous,” Zelenskyy said in his daily address.
He clarified that while civil aviation was not being targeted “as such”, it had “no place in a sky infested with drones”.
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"Ukraine does not want innocent lives to be lost. That is why we are warning our partners: the days of safety in Russian airspace are over," he continued, asserting that this is a “just response" to "Russia’s desire to prolong the war and escalate the scale of the strikes"’.
At least 12 people were killed on Tuesday in Kyiv and the surrounding region in new Russian night-time strikes.
“The skies above Russia are currently for drones. Not for civil aviation. As long as the war continues,” Zelenskyy insisted.
More than four and a half years after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, both Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up their strikes, at the cost of a growing number of civilian casualties.
Air traffic to and from Russian airports is regularly disrupted by Ukrainian drones, the number of which has increased in recent months.
Ukraine will, however, respond favourably to requests from its partners not to disrupt flights to Russia “at specific times and to specific destinations”, Zelenskyy stated, “in the interests of diplomacy and negotiations”.
US-mediated diplomatic efforts to end the conflict have stalled since the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
