Air traffic between Russia and Ukraine has ceased

From today, air traffic between Russia and Ukraine has been completely stopped. The last flight took off from Kiev to Moscow on October 24 in 20: 40, according to the website of Kiev Borispol Airport.

Recall President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko signed a decree on the introduction of new sanctions against Russia on September 16, six days later they officially came into force. A number of politicians and public figures, as well as 21 airlines, including Aeroflot and Transaero, were blacklisted.

In response, Russia took mirror measures against Ukrainian airlines, closing its airspace for them. As stated in Kiev, air traffic may resume when the Russian side refuses to fly to the Crimea and pay a fine.

“Russian airlines that violate Ukrainian legislation and fly to the illegally annexed Crimea will not be able to fly to other cities of Ukraine,” explained Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Andrei Pivovarsky. The Russian authorities do not consider the annexation of Crimea an “annexation.”

This week, representatives of Ukraine and Russia held technical consultations in Brussels on the issue of air traffic, but they had no effect on Kiev’s decision to suspend air traffic. It is possible that in the future the parties will be able to come to some kind of agreement.

At the end of September, Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Kyiv had imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation “in connection with the seizure of Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk.” “But our northern neighbors began to baselessly threaten and introduce retaliatory measures against Ukrainian airlines. I would like to emphasize that in international relations the key principle is the principle of reciprocity. If the Russians think that they will destroy our airlines in this way, they should not succeed,” he said.

Even before the introduction of the mirror ban, the Kremlin regarded Kyiv’s actions as an “act of madness.” “Now we can say one thing - that stopping air traffic between Russia and Ukraine would be another act of madness,” commented the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov on the situation.