Zelensky: ‘Safe Days in Russia’s Skies Are Over’

President Volodymyr Zelensky warned international airlines and insurers on Tuesday that Russian airspace is becoming “completely unsafe” as Ukraine expands drone and missile strikes against military targets and parts of Russia’s economy supporting the war.

“The war started by Russia is closing its skies,” Zelensky said in his Tuesday evening address. “Drone-infested skies are no place for civilian aviation.”

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and other state institutions will provide international aviation organizations with information about the risks, while foreign ambassadors in Kyiv and Moscow have been urged to relay the warning to their governments.

Zelensky  said the growing danger over Russia was a direct consequence of Moscow’s intensified attacks on Ukraine, which he said have sharply increased since August.

On the first day of the school year, millions of Ukrainian children were forced into shelters amid day-long air raid alerts and Shahed drone attacks, he said.

Russia also launched a ballistic missile strike on Kyiv overnight and attacked other Ukrainian cities with drones, while missiles hit another railway depot that Zelensky said contained no military equipment.

“This is nothing but Russian terror against civilians,” the Ukrainian leader stressed.

Russia has systematically targeted Ukraine’s energy system, ports, roads, railways, universities, businesses, schools and churches throughout its full-scale invasion.

“We did not choose this war, and we certainly did not want this escalation,” he said. “It is entirely Russia’s desire, Putin’s desire, to prolong the war and increase the scale of its strikes.”

‘The skies over Russia are for drones’

Zelensky said Ukraine would continue exercising its right to self-defense by striking Russian military targets and economic infrastructure supporting Moscow’s war effort.

“This escalation cannot and will not remain confined to Ukrainian territory,” he said.

“It is entirely natural and just that its consequences will also extend to Russia – including Russian airspace, which already is, and will increasingly become, a space for our drones and our missiles.”

Zelensky stressed that Ukraine does not target civilian aircraft.

“Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft,” he said. “There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account.”

He urged airlines, insurers and governments to recognize the growing risks around Moscow, St. Petersburg and other major Russian destinations.

“The safe days in Russia’s skies are over,” Zelensky said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry and other state institutions will provide international organizations with information on the risks to civilian aviation, he added.

Ukraine paused strikes for diplomacy

The president also revealed that Kyiv had temporarily suspended some long-range strikes at the request of international partners to support diplomatic efforts.

“When the Americans asked us to pause strikes on Moscow and St. Petersburg on August 25, 26, and 27, we observed that pause,” he said. “There were no strikes, while strikes on Ukraine continued.”

He said Ukraine had also agreed to suspend strikes toward Vladivostok for a specified period after a request from “another global power.”

With new meetings in Moscow being prepared, Zelensky said Kyiv would again take diplomatic considerations into account.

“We always support every step toward peace – every step to prevent Russia from making this war endless,” he said.

Ukraine, he added, remains prepared to clear specified areas and routes of drones temporarily when partners request it for genuine diplomatic efforts.

“Safety will return to Russia’s skies,” Zelensky said. “It will be restored when there is real movement toward peace.”

“For now, the skies over Russia are for drones – not for civilian aviation. As long as the war continues.”

European and US carriers already avoid Russian airspace, while airlines from China, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and other Gulf states continue to use it.