Following almost a week of relentless Russian attacks on Kyiv and non-stop air raid alerts, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a stark warning to international airlines and insurers: “Russian airspace will effectively be closing.”
In his evening address on 1 September, Zelenskyy said the consequences of the war Moscow launched more than four years ago could no longer be confined to Ukrainian territory and that Kyiv’s ever-growing drone operations would soon render Russian airspace unsafe.
“It was from Russia that the first missiles and the first drones came, and they crossed our country’s border from Russian airspace,” Zelenskyy said. “This escalation cannot and will not remain confined to Ukrainian territory.”
His warning was directed not only at Moscow but at airlines, insurers and foreign governments whose carriers continue to fly through Russian airspace and serve airports in Moscow, St Petersburg and other major cities.
“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.
Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine would not threaten civilian aircraft, but the sheer scale of Ukrainian UAV activity would have to be taken into account.
“Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft,” he said. “There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account.”
“Russian airspace will effectively be closing — the war started by Russia is closing its skies,” he added.
Ukraine’s airspace has been closed to civilian aviation since 24 February 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
Russian civilian aviation, by contrast, has continued operating throughout the war, despite increasingly frequent disruptions and temporary airport closures during Ukrainian drone attacks.
Kyiv’s long-range operations have targeted military facilities and infrastructure supporting Moscow’s war effort, including airfields, missile units, oil refineries and other energy facilities.
Zelenskyy stressed that that would not change, saying Ukraine did not want innocent lives to be lost.
“We are warning our partners: the safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” he said, while calling on foreign ambassadors in both Kyiv and Moscow to relay the message to their governments.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry and other government agencies would provide international organisations with full information about the dangers in Russian airspace, he added.
Almost a week of attacks on Kyiv
Zelenskyy’s warning comes after almost a week of sustained Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities, with Moscow increasingly relying on jet-powered drones launched in repeated waves both day and night.
Kyiv and its surrounding region have been among the main targets, with repeated air-raid alerts disrupting transport, businesses and daily life across the capital.
The attacks point to a shift in Russian tactics. Rather than concentrating its largest attacks in massive overnight barrages of drones and missiles, Moscow has increasingly sent smaller waves of drones at intervals throughout the day, prolonging air-raid alerts and placing sustained pressure on Ukrainian air defences.
Officials in Kyiv said Russia was increasingly deploying jet-powered drones alongside ballistic missiles, presenting Ukrainian defences with a particularly difficult challenge.
Zelenskyy’s message is now that Russia can no longer expect the air war it has waged over Ukraine to stop at its own border.
“Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation,” he said.