Russian officials vowed on Wednesday that Ukraine won’t be able to shut down Russian airspace after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened a major escalation of drone attacks on Russian territory and said Russia’s skies would no longer be safe for civilian aircraft.
Ukraine’s drones have disrupted flights in the cities in Russia being targeted for years now, but Zelensky is now vowing that his planned escalation will completely shut down Russian airspace.
“We are constantly improving flight safety and airport security requirements, and we have solutions for all of this,” Russian Transportation Minister Andrei Nikitin said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
“We are working in close contact with the Ministry of Defense and the Russian National Guard. And I believe that we will not allow any significant disruption to civil aviation,” Nikitin added.
Ukrainian officials have said that they have notified the International Civil Aviation Organization that Russia’s airspace would not be safe, but the Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said that the Ukrainian notifications “have no legal force and violate the Convention on International Civil Aviation.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin was asked about Zelensky’s threat and said it amounted to “state terrorism,” and added that “terrorists” should not be negotiated with.
“Look, I haven’t heard such statements, but if this was voiced, it is simply a bid for state terrorism. And I would like to note that they have been asking us to resume negotiations, seeking face-to-face meetings. Terrorists are not negotiated with,” Putin said on Tuesday night at a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.
In the meantime, Russian missile and drone attacks continued to pound Ukraine, where at least two civilians were killed in the city of Dnipro on Wednesday. Russian media also reported that Ukrainian attacks in the Russian-controlled Donetsk Oblast killed four civilians.
