Ukraine sees no point closing airspace amid Russia tension, says official
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A Sukhoi Su-27 plane of air tactical aviation brigade of Ukraine prior to a flight in Myrhorod region on Feb 11, 2022.
PHOTO: AFP
KYIV (REUTERS) - Ukraine sees no point closing its airspace in response to Moscow’s troop build-up, a senior official said on Sunday (Feb 13), as some carriers reviewed their services to the country after the United States warned that Russia could invade at any time.
Dutch airline KLM – part of Air France – said it would stop flying to Ukraine and Germany’s Lufthansa said it was considering suspending flights, as a local newspaper, Ukrayinska Pravda, said in an unconfirmed report that the government might discuss the air traffic issue on Sunday.
Two third of the 298 passengers killed when Malaysia Airlines MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine in 2014 as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur were Dutch citizens.
The infrastructure ministry said airlines were continuing to operate “without any restrictions”.
It also said it was ready to provide additional financial guarantees to support local airlines, many of which use leased planes, after one Ukrainian carrier, SkyUp, said it had to divert a flight after the plane’s owner barred it from entering Ukrainian airspace.
“The current situation requires a solution at the state level. Now we are working together with state authorities to find solutions,” SkyUp’s CEO Dmytro Seroukhov said.
Meanwhile, the carrier had suspended the sale of ticket for flights up to Wednesday, he added.
News agency Interfax Ukraine said Ukrainian insurance companies had received a notification from reinsurers that airlines were not covered for war risks.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, said scheduling reconfigurations by individual carriers had “nothing to do with the decisions or policies of our state”.
“The most important point is that Ukraine itself sees no point in closing the sky. This is nonsense. And, in my opinion, it somewhat resembles a kind of partial blockade,” he told Reuters.
No signs of exodus
The United States, its Western allies and other nations have been scaling back or evacuating embassy staff and have advised their citizens not to travel to Ukraine amid the stand-off.
Washington says the Russian military, which has more than 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, could invade at any moment.
Moscow denies having any such plan and has described such warnings as “hysteria”.
Oksana Yurchenko was travelling back to Australia with her child. “We were visiting our family here in Ukraine. We were planning to stay a bit longer but this situation is a bit scary,” the chef and a beauty salon owner said.
