The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has banned all Russian airlines from operating transit flights through Ukrainian airspace. Prime Minister Arsenii Yatseniuk announced the ban in a statement, the Interfax Ukraine news agency reports.
"I ask the Ministry of Infrastructure to take measures in accordance with international law to notify the Russian side of the closure of the Ukrainian airspace to all Russian airlines without exception and suspension of all transit flights by Russian airlines," the prime minister said at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers in Kiev on Wednesday, 25 November.
According to him, Russia could use Ukrainian airspace for provocations.
As reported, aviation expert Serhii Kaduchenko recently suggested that Russian transit flights over Ukrainian territory should be banned because of the danger of a terrorist attack. The expert did not claim to have any information about an imminent explosion in the sky, but he hypothesized that this could be advantageous to the Russian side, with all the consequences of such an attack.
Flights between Ukraine and Russia were discontinued on 25 October after both countries both banned flights. At the same time, Ukraine decided not to ban Russian airlines’ transit flights through its airspace. However, it required Russian airlines to obtain special permission from the State Aviation Service for every flight. According to the Kommersant publication, the Aeroflot airline’s special regime for transit flights was preserved.
Ukrainian airlines have long been banned from operating transit flights through Russia.
