Europe shuts down its airspace for Russia. Russia takes similar measures in response

Europe closes airspace for Russian aircraft

European countries will close the airspace for Russian aircraft, German TV channel ARD reports citing its sources, TASS reports.

It remains unclear, though, when exactly the sky over EU states will be closed for Russia. However, A number of countries, including:

  • Bulgaria,
  • the UK,
  • Latvia,
  • Lithuania,
  • Poland,
  • Romania,
  • Slovenia,
  • the Czech Republic,

and Estonia have already decided to close their airspace for Russian aircraft. Finland will also join the restrictions, Finland's Ambassador to the United States, Mikko Hautala said.

The head of the German Ministry for Transport, Volker Wissing, supported the measures to close Germany's airspace for Russia.

In response, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency decided to restrict the use of Russian airspace for aircraft from Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic starting from February 26. A similar measure was implemented for Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Estonia. On February 25, Russia closed its airspace for the aircraft from the UK.

Due to restrictions, Western airlines start canceling their flights to Russia. German airline Lufthansa announced a decision to suspend its flights to Russia for a week. Dutch airline KLM made a similar decision.

The new restrictions have changed the route of flights to Russia's Kaliningrad enclave. The restrictions have increased the duration of flights to Kaliningrad. According to the Federal Air Transport Agency, air routes will now pass through the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The Kaliningrad airport remains open.

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Author`s name Editorial Team
Editor Dmitry Sudakov
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