The war escalates and Zelensky warns airlines: "The safe days in the skies of Russia are over"

MoscowThe rhetorical escalation in the war in Ukraine has reached a new level after Volodymyr Zelensky sent a message to international airlines that still operate flights to Russia. “Russian airspace will become completely unsafe,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X on Tuesday night. While clarifying that Kyiv “does not threaten civil air transport nor threaten a single aircraft,” Zelensky holds Russian authorities responsible for the management of their airspace from now on, considering that “there will be drones in the Russian sky in a dimension that must be considered”.

“The safe days in the Russian sky are over, the war that Russia started is closing its sky -added the Ukrainian leader-, we don't want innocent lives to be lost, that's why we are warning our partners”. According to Zelensky, the Russian sky “is already and will be even more” a space for Ukrainian drones and missiles. According to him, Ukraine will continue to attack military targets and companies in the Russian economy that work for the war.

Zelensky also hinted that Kyiv is willing to make exceptions for specific routes and to halt 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 and St. Petersburg coinciding with the visit of the CIA director, and that, at the request of another “global power” which he did not name, but which could be China, it agreed not to send drones towards Vladivostok, the Russian Far East. According to him, similar exceptions can also be made for future international meetings in Russia.

Vladimir Putin has already replied to Zelensky that, if he carries out these threats, he will be committing "state terrorism". "They ask us to resume negotiations, they ask for personal meetings - said the Russian president from Kyrgyzstan -, 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." Shortly after the publication of Zelensky's message, Aeroflot shares on the Moscow Stock Exchange lost almost 5% in a few minutes.