Ukraine urges UN aviation agency to fully ban operations in Russian airspace

Ukraine has urged the UN's aviation agency to ask its members to fully ban operations in Russian airspace, a day after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned it was "becoming completely ​unsafe".

On Tuesday, top ‌Ukrainian officials said the country would step up retaliation against Russia's intensified strikes on Kyiv, which ⁠has been under continuous air raid alerts for seven days and has suffered hits on civilian infrastructure.

Ukraine would only target Russian military facilities and not threaten civilian aircraft, Zelensky ‌added, but he stressed that the growing number of Ukrainian drones in Russian skies should "be taken into account".

In ⁠a letter to International Civil Aviation Organisation Chairman Juan Carlos Salazar, a copy of which was exclusively shared with Reuters, Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Mykola Kalashnyk said Kyiv believed the risk of tragedies in the skies should be minimised.

Ukraine ​asked ICAO to encourage aviation authorities and airlines to safeguard civil aviation, "including by facilitating the full prohibition ‌by ICAO member states of civil aircraft operations within the airspace of the Russian Federation".

While European and US carriers do not fly over Russia due to the war that erupted when Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the airspace is used by airlines from countries such ‌as China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states.

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ICAO cannot impose rules on its 193 member countries, but its decisions influence national policies. The Montreal-based UN agency uses ​consensus to set standards on everything from runways to seat belts.

While not mentioning any specific country, ICAO on Wednesday warned in a statement that the risk of weapons targeting commercial planes is growing and called for stronger commitments from countries to protect ​aircraft from conflict zone risks.

"ICAO is observing heightened risks of civil aircraft being targeted or caught in crossfire," the statement ​said. "While the aviation industry is able to reroute flights and maintain operations during conflicts, this ​operational flexibility does not address the fundamental security threat."

Aviation risk advisory firm Osprey Flight Solutions said in an analysis that Ukraine's drone and missile attacks have already demonstrated their reach deep ​into Russia, leading to airport closures and flight cancellations.

"Zelensky is articulating publicly what Ukraine has been doing for months: systematically disrupting Russian airspace," Osprey said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Zelenskiy's comments amounted to "state terrorism". Moscow on Wednesday vowed to head off any disruption to civil aviation.

In 2024, 38 people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane heading to Russia's Grozny crash-landed in Kazakhstan after diverting from its course. ⁠Putin later said two Russian missiles detonated near the aircraft after Ukrainian drones entered the airspace.

Ukraine closed its airspace to civilian traffic when Russia launched its ⁠full-scale invasion in February ​2022, unleashing missile barrages without issuing warnings to civilian aircraft in Ukrainian airspace.

Airports have remained closed ever since, and SkyUp, Ukraine's only surviving airline, now operates from neighbouring Moldova.