Moscow’s Vnukovo and Sheremetyevo airports have suspended operations for the second night in a row following warnings from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky about the danger posed to civil aviation by Russia’s airspace. At Sheremetyevo, 21 flights were canceled and 235 delayed; at Vnukovo, 22 were canceled and 94 delayed.
On September 1, Zelensky warned that Ukraine would step up attacks on Russian territory using drones in response to strikes by Russian forces on civilian infrastructure. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha subsequently said that Kyiv had officially notified the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that Russian airspace was unsafe.
In a letter to the organization’s Secretary General, Juan Carlos Salazar Gómez, Ukraine recalled that it had closed its airspace back in February 2022, while Russia had disregarded the risks. As we remember, this led to the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger aircraft flying from Baku on December 25, 2024. The plane was hit by a Russian air defense system in the skies over Grozny, after which the damaged aircraft was directed toward Kazakhstan, where it crashed, killing dozens of people.
Ukraine also appealed to ICAO to call on its member states to completely ban civil aircraft from flying in Russian airspace. Osprey Flight Solutions, a company specializing in aviation risk assessment, also warned clients of the growing risks of flying over Ukraine due to Ukrainian strikes and possible mistakes by Russian air defenses.
