As the war grinds on, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has issued an unusually blunt warning to airlines and passengers: Russia’s skies, he said, are set to become hazardous for civilian travel.
“Today, 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,” he said in his nightly address.
Zelensky stressed that Ukraine was not targeting commercial flights, but signalled that the growing presence of Ukrainian drones over Russia would be impossible to ignore.
“Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft. There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account,” he added.
Russian President Vladimir Putin fired back, calling Zelensky’s remarks “a declaration of state terrorism”.
“They are asking us to resume negotiations but you don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Mr Putin said in a televised news conference.
Even as he levelled the accusation, Putin said Russia remained willing to consider “concrete” discussions to settle the Ukraine conflict, provided there was a way to inject new momentum into talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was speaking at a press conference in Kyrgyzstan
Addressing reporters after a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Mr Putin again voiced confidence that Russian forces would ultimately win in Ukraine and that Kyiv’s forces would “crumble”.
More than four years after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both Russia and Ukraine have stepped up their attacks.
At least 12 people were killed yesterday in Kyiv and the surrounding region during fresh overnight Russian strikes.
Inside Russia, the increasing reach of Ukrainian drones has repeatedly rattled aviation operations, with airports experiencing regular disruptions as drones approach — incidents that have become more frequent in recent months.
“We in Ukraine do not want innocent lives to be lost. That is why we are warning our partners: the safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” Mr Zelensky said.
He reinforced the message with a stark assessment of what lies ahead for civilian carriers while the conflict continues.
“Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation,” he added. “The sky over Russia is currently for drones as long as the war continues.”
Zelensky also said Ukraine would be prepared to remove its drones from Russian airspace if partners requested it, but only under clearly defined conditions tied to diplomacy — “for the sake of diplomacy, for the sake of negotiations, for specific periods of time and in specific destinations”.
Diplomatic efforts under US mediation to end the conflict have stalled since the outbreak of war in the Middle East in February.
