Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned airlines using Russian airspace about the threat posed by Ukrainian drones, saying the skies above Russia are no longer safe amid Moscow's continued escalation.
“Today, we want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, everyone who still uses key Russian airports: the Russian sky is becoming completely dangerous,” Zelenskyy said in his daily evening video address on September 1.
“Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation,” he said, providing no additional details on the scale of drone activity that should be expected in Russian airspace or when the threat would intensify.
Zelenskyy's comment came as Kyiv has stepped up long-range strikes inside Russia, targeting military sites, oil and gas facilities, and retail legistics centers in an effort to push the Kremlin toward peace negotiations.
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Ukraine's Refinery Attacks Force Russia To Turn Abroad To Process Its OilThe Ukrainian president stressed that Kyiv was not threatening any civilian aircraft, but said “there will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account.”
Asked about Zelenskyy's claim at a news conference in Kyrgyzstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow would respond in case of any incidents, adding that such statements amount to “state terrorism.”
Commercial flights do not operate in or cross Ukraine during the full-scale war that Putin launched against Russia's neighbor in February 2022.
In July 2014, early in the war pitting Kyiv's forces against Russian and Russia-backed forces in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region, a Russian missile shot down a Malaysia Airlines jet flying from Amrsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, killing all 298 passnegrs and crew aboard.
Earlier on September 1, Russian forces pounded regions across Ukraine as children across the country headed to school for their first day of classes.
One of the strikes left at least four people dead and 13 others injured in the city of Boryspil in the Kyiv region, when a Russian missile struck near a residential building.
Russian Strikes Pound Kyiv Region As Ukrainian Children Head Back To School
“This is nothing but Russian terror against civilians,” Zelenskyy said of the latest Russian attacks. He added that “this escalation cannot and will not remain confined to Ukrainian territory.”
“It is entirely natural and just that its consequences will also extend to Russia -- including Russian airspace, which already is, and will increasingly become, a space for our drones and our missiles that are actively and justly responding to Russia’s war.”