# Zelensky says airlines should avoid Russian airspace as Ukraine escalates drone operations

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/zelensky-says-airlines-should-avoid-russian-airspace-as-ukraine-escalates-drone-operations/
- Published: 2026-09-02T14:57:12+00:00
- Updated: 2026-09-02T21:24:10+00:00
- Original publisher: BBC World (publisher lean: Centre)
- Original article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9v9yydy2wvo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss
- Topics: Europe, Space, Technology, World

## Key points

- Ukraine tells UN's aviation body Russian airspace is unsafe for civilian flights
- Zelensky warns of rising drone activity; Putin calls it "state terrorism"
- Non-Western airlines still flying to Russia, but monitoring risks closely

## Summary

Ukraine has formally notified the UN's aviation body that Russian airspace is unsafe for civilian flights, after President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that the "Russian sky is becoming completely dangerous" as Kyiv escalates long-range drone strikes. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine had told the International Civil Aviation Organization it wanted to "prevent unintended incidents", while Zelensky insisted Ukraine was not targeting civilian aircraft but that drone activity over Russia would reach a scale airlines must account for. Vladimir Putin dismissed the move as a "declaration of state terrorism". Despite the warning, flight-tracking data continued to show many aircraft using Russian airspace, including at Moscow's main airports, with delays but few cancellations.

Most Western carriers already avoid Russian skies, but airlines from Turkey, China and the Gulf, including Qatar Airways and FlyDubai, said they were closely monitoring the situation rather than halting flights outright; Turkish carrier Pegasus briefly cancelled some services citing "technical and operational reasons" before resuming its schedule. Ukraine's drone campaign has repeatedly disrupted Russia's biggest airports, at times forcing all four major Moscow hubs to halt arrivals and departures under the country's "Kovyor" air-defence protocol, which grounds flights whenever a drone is detected nearby. Analysts at Osprey Flight Solutions said most strikes were likely to remain within 300km of the border but that daily attacks deeper into Russia were almost certain to continue, raising the risk of "miscalculation or misidentification" near the conflict.

## Coverage

- [BBC World: Zelensky says airlines should avoid Russian airspace as Ukraine escalates drone operations](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9v9yydy2wvo?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=rss)
- [The Guardian: Russian airspace becoming unsafe for commercial airlines, Zelenskyy says](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/02/russian-airspace-unsafe-commercial-airlines-zelenskyy)

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Summarised by TalkFuse (https://talkfuse.com/). Quote the original publisher for the reporting and link this page for the summary and discussion.