Zelensky Warns Airlines Russian Skies Are 'Becoming Completely Dangerous'
Ukraine formally notified the UN aviation body that Russian airspace is unsafe, as President Zelensky warned “every airline, every insurer” that “there will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account”. Turkish carrier Pegasus cancelled Russia flights. Mr Putin called it “a declaration of state terrorism” — and, asked whether Russia might strike British military sites over UK missile support, answered only: “That’s a secret, a military secret.” Kyiv was attacked for a seventh consecutive day.
Ukraine has found an escalation that costs nothing and compounds daily: it need not down a single airliner — the warning itself, filed formally with ICAO, forces every insurer and safety officer to re-price Russian routes, and Pegasus cancelling within hours shows the mechanism working. Aviation isolation was among the first sanctions of 2022; Kyiv is now extending it by deterrence. Mr Putin’s Bishkek performance repaid study: the shark metaphor, the shift from “special military operation” to the plain word “war”, warm words for Mr Kushner and Mr Witkoff as negotiating partners — and, for Britain, a theatrical “military secret” pause over whether UK military sites are targets, while a Moscow tabloid wrote that Mr Burnham should see Russia “in his nightmares”. Watch which carriers follow Pegasus; each cancellation deepens Russia’s isolation at nobody’s expense but Moscow’s.