The war escalates and Zelensky warns airlines: "Safe days in Russian skies are over"

MoscowVolodymyr Zelensky is looking for new ways to pressure Vladimir Putin to stop the war in Ukraine. In the last few hours, the rhetorical escalation has reached a new level after the Ukrainian president issued a warning to international airlines that still maintain flights to Russia. “Russian airspace will become completely unsafe,” he stated on Tuesday night. While clarifying that Kyiv “does not threaten civil air transport nor does it threaten a single aircraft,” Zelensky holds the Russian authorities responsible for how they manage their airspace from now on, taking into account that “there will be drones in the Russian sky to a dimension that must be considered”.

“The safe days in Russian skies are over, the war that Russia started is closing its skies – added the Ukrainian leader – we do not want innocent lives to be lost, which is why we are warning our partners.” According to Zelensky, Russian skies “already are and will be even more so” a space for Ukrainian drones and missiles because they will continue to attack military targets and Russian economy companies that work for the war.

The Ukrainian leader also implied that Kyiv is willing to make exceptions for specific routes and to stop attacks at the request of partners in case of peace negotiations. He confirmed that, at the request of the United States, Ukraine did not attack Moscow or Saint Petersburg coinciding with the visit of the CIA director at the end of August, and that, at the request of another “global power” which he did not mention, it has agreed not to send drones to Vladivostok, the Russian Far East, next to China, where an economic forum begins this Wednesday.

The M&M's operation

For months, according to various media outlets, Zelensky has had a plan in his drawer to collapse Russian airports, which would fit with the warning of the last few hours. It is about the so-called M&M's operation, aimed at oversaturating Russian international terminals with hundreds of small drones guided by artificial intelligence - hence the reference to small chocolate candies - in order to force them to stop all flights. Kyiv has not dared to implement it until now because it doubts its legality and because it fears being accused of piracy if the devices hit a commercial aircraft. However, the situation may have changed in recent weeks.

Some analysts interpret Zelensky's warning as a desperate move to achieve a truce in aerial attacks, especially now that winter is approaching and Kyiv does not have American Patriot interceptors to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles. By targeting international civil aviation using Russian airports, it not only seeks to isolate Russia by air, but also compromises the interests of companies from Gulf countries such as Emirates, Etihad or Qatar Airways, Air China or Turkish Airlines.

Just this morning, Turkish Pegasus cancelled several flights to or from Moscow, citing "technical and operational" reasons. The interruption of activity at the international airports of the capital and other Russian regions is common, especially at dawn, during increasingly massive Ukrainian bombings. Passengers, many of them Russians traveling to or returning from abroad, are forced to spend hours in transit waiting to continue their journey. Turkey, moreover, is the main route to Russia from the European Union. The Russian Transport Minister, Andrei Nikitin, has assured that they "will not allow" significant interruptions in air traffic, although he admitted that "in the coming years" restrictions will have to be imposed because user safety is a priority.

"State terrorism"

Vladimir Putin has already replied to Zelensky that, if he carries out these threats, he will be committing "state terrorism". "They are asking us to resume negotiations, they are asking us for personal meetings - said the Russian president before flying to Vladivostok -, but we do not negotiate with terrorists." The Kremlin leader also wanted to make it clear that "if these tragedies occur", Russia "will find a way to respond".

At the same time, from Ukraine they recall that their sky has been closed by Russian drones and missiles since the beginning of the invasion. Furthermore, Russia has been involved in incidents with commercial aircraft. For example, on December 24, 2024, an Azerbaidjan Airlines flight heading to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, crashed in Kazakhstan after mistakenly being hit by Russian anti-aircraft defenses. 38 people died. Putin took nine months to acknowledge his responsibility in the tragedy.