Ukraine tells airlines to stop using Russian airspace

Ukraine has warned commercial airlines to stop using Russian airspace as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed to increase drone attacks across Russia in response to Moscow’s near-continuous strikes on Kyiv in the past week.

Andriy Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, on Wednesday said his country had officially notified the International Civil Aviation Organization that Russian airspace was not safe for civilian aviation because of “increased military activity”.

“We urge everyone to avoid it,” he wrote on social media site X.

The previous day Zelenskyy had cautioned commercial carriers that “the safe days in Russia’s skies are over” as “there will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account”.

“We want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer and everyone who still uses Russia’s key airports: Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday night.

European, American and some Asian carriers ceased flying over, or to, Russia after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. But several major airlines including Emirates, Turkish Airlines, Air India, Etihad and Qatar Airways, as well as a number of Chinese carriers, continue to use Russian airspace.

Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities have suffered regular drone and missile barrages for months, but from August 27, Russian long-range drones flew towards the capital in small, near-continuous waves, hitting energy infrastructure, residential buildings and warehouses over five consecutive days.

“You can all see that the Russians have changed the tactics of their strikes against Ukraine and, since August, have been terrorising our people, our cities and our villages far more intensely,” Zelenskyy said.

At least 49 people have been killed in Kyiv and its surrounding region during the attacks. The raids continued on Wednesday, with the flight of jet-powered drones and several explosions being heard in Kyiv by an FT correspondent.

A broader escalation over the summer has seen Ukraine and Russia using long-range drones to hit ships operating in the Black Sea as well as commercial warehouses, including sites owned by the Russian online retail group Wildberries. The effective blockade of Ukrainian ports has threatened grain exports.

Ukrainian drone attacks have repeatedly forced airports in Moscow and other major cities to close, delaying passengers for hours or sometimes even days and forcing planes to be diverted.

Russia’s transport minister Andrei Nikitin on Wednesday said Moscow would prevent “any significant disruptions to civil aviation” but acknowledged that “carpets” — a term in Russia for temporary airspace closures — would be inevitable “because passenger safety is the most important thing”.

Turkish Pegasus cancelled several flights to Russia scheduled for early on Wednesday. In a statement, the airline cited “technical and operational reasons”. But Russia’s Kommersant newspaper reported that an announcement made at Samara airport cited “the latest information” about a “threat of a large-scale drone attack on Russian airspace”.

Andrew Lobbenberg, an airlines analyst at Barclays, said the biggest risk to commercial carriers would be if they were “misidentified during drone interceptions, caught in air-defence fire or affected by debris, airport closures and rapidly changing operating restrictions”.

He added that Zelenskyy’s warning “could materially increase pressure on airlines still using Russian airspace” if it led to higher insurance premiums or increased restrictions from national aviation authorities. Airlines that fly over Russia are able to reduce journey times and costs for services from Europe to Asia.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had paused its drone strikes on Russia during CIA director John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow at the end of August and “for the sake of diplomacy and negotiations” would ensure that Russian skies were “cleared of drones for specified periods of time and along specified routes” whenever “our partners approach us about this”.

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Qatar Airways said its flight planning and operational decisions were guided “by rigorous and continuous monitoring of airspace security, safety assessments and geopolitical developments, in close co-ordination with the relevant authorities”.

“The safety of our passengers and crew is Qatar Airways’ highest priority,” it said, adding that it would “adapt our operations as necessary”.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday warned Ukraine would face three crises as a result of Russian “retaliatory” strikes targeting Ukrainian exports, including grain and other agricultural products.

“The first is a currency crisis . . . The second is a budget crisis . . . And the third is a banking crisis,” Putin said in a televised address.