Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned airlines operating in Russian airspace that the country’s skies are becoming increasingly dangerous as Kyiv intensifies its drone strikes deep inside Russia.
Zelensky said airlines, insurers and operators using major Russian airports should prepare for a significant escalation in drone activity.
“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,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address on Tuesday.
He stressed that Ukraine was not targeting civilian aviation, saying the increased risk would result from the scale of drone operations across Russian territory.
“Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft,” he said, adding that Kyiv did not want innocent people to lose their lives.
“There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account,” Zelensky said.
His warning was directed particularly at airlines continuing to operate flights to major Russian airports, including those serving Moscow and St Petersburg.
Russia has accused Ukraine of escalating attacks inside its territory, with Ukrainian drones targeting energy infrastructure and facilities belonging to major online retailers, including Wildberries and Ozon.
The attacks have also repeatedly disrupted operations at some of Russia’s busiest airports. In Moscow, drone alerts have at times forced all four major airports to suspend arrivals and departures, with further cancellations reported on Wednesday.
Ukraine does not necessarily need to target airports directly to disrupt aviation.
Under Russia’s “Kovyor”, or “carpet”, air-defence protocol, flights are suspended when a drone is detected in the relevant area.
Aviation risk advisory firm Osprey Flight Solutions warned that although most Ukrainian drone and missile strikes were likely to occur within 300 kilometres of the border, deeper attacks inside Russia were expected to continue.
The firm also said there was a realistic possibility that the frequency of Ukrainian strikes deep inside Russian territory would increase in the short term, raising the risk of miscalculation or misidentification.
Responding to Zelensky’s remarks, Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the Ukrainian leader of effectively declaring “state terrorism”.
Speaking to reporters at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Kyrgyzstan, Putin said Russia would continue its military operations against Ukraine.
“They are asking us to resume negotiations… but you don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Putin said.
His comments came as Russian attacks on Ukraine continued, with heavy strikes killing 12 people on Tuesday and further attacks reported in Odesa, Sumy and Kyiv on Wednesday.
Russia’s military has also said it is preparing “massive” strikes against Ukrainian power infrastructure.
Kyiv and the surrounding region have come under attack for seven consecutive days, as the conflict continues to intensify.
Zelensky has repeatedly said Ukraine is taking the war back into Russian territory, arguing that Russia must experience the consequences of its attacks on Ukraine.
Putin acknowledged that Ukrainian strikes had damaged infrastructure inside Russia, while claiming that only about 10 percent of the country’s oil refineries remained in need of repairs.
Chinese, Turkish and Gulf carriers are among the airlines that continue to use Russian airspace, partly because doing so saves time and fuel on routes between Europe and Asia.
Most Western airlines have avoided Russian airspace since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, while Ukraine has kept its own airspace closed to civilian aviation throughout the conflict.
The risks to civilian aviation in conflict zones have been underscored by previous incidents.
In July 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. Last year, the UN aviation agency ruled that Russia was responsible for the downing of the aircraft, although the Kremlin has consistently denied responsibility.
In 2024, Putin apologised to Azerbaijan’s president over the downing of an Azerbaijani commercial aircraft in Russian airspace that killed 38 people. He said the incident occurred while Russian air-defence systems were responding to Ukrainian drone attacks.
Boluwatife Enome
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