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Turkish Airline Cancels 12 Flights After Zelenskyy Threatens to Make Russian Airspace Unsafe
🇵🇾 Paraguay /Technology

Turkish Airline Cancels 12 Flights After Zelenskyy Threatens to Make Russian Airspace Unsafe

From ABC Color · () Spanish

Translated from Spanish and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Newswire From a news agency Ongoing story
  • Turkish airline Pegasus canceled 12 flights between Turkey and Russia after a warning from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
  • Passengers were offered ticket changes or refunds, while other airlines continued reporting flights to Russia.
  • Russian President Vladimir Putin called Zelenskyy's warning an appeal to state terrorism, and China urged calm and restraint.

Pegasus canceled 12 flights between Turkey and Russia on Wednesday after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that Russian airspace would become "completely unsafe."

Sources at Moscow's Vnukovo airport said the Turkish airline suspended six flights to Moscow and six from the Russian capital, according to the Russian Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti. Passengers were offered the option of changing their tickets or requesting refunds.

Today we want to warn all airlines that use Russian airspace, and everyone who still uses Russia's major airports. Russian airspace will become completely unsafe.

— Volodymyr ZelenskyyThe Ukrainian president warned airlines using Russian airspace and airports.

Other airlines had not reported canceling flights to Russia. Vnukovo received at least 16 aircraft from Turkey that day, according to the same channel. Transport Minister Andrei Nikitin said his ministry was coordinating with the Defense Ministry to prevent threats to air communications.

Ukraine does not threaten civil aviation, does not threaten a single aircraft. There will simply be drones in the Russian sky on a scale that must be taken into account.

— Volodymyr ZelenskyyZelenskyy said his warning concerned the scale of drone activity, not attacks on civilian aircraft.

Zelenskyy issued the warning on X on Tuesday. "Today we want to warn all airlines that use Russian airspace, and everyone who still uses Russia's major airports. Russian airspace will become completely unsafe," he wrote. He later said Ukraine was not threatening civil aviation or any individual aircraft, but that drones would appear in Russian skies on a scale airlines had to consider.

"In Ukraine, we do not want innocent lives to be lost. That is why we are warning our partners. The safe days of Russian airspace are over," Zelenskyy said, adding that airlines flying mainly to Moscow, St. Petersburg and other Russian destinations also needed to hear the warning. Putin described the remarks as an "appeal to state terrorism" and said Russia would respond if a tragedy occurred. China called for calm and restraint, saying dialogue and negotiation were the only way to resolve the Ukraine crisis.

Appeal to state terrorism.

— Vladimir PutinThe Russian president's characterization of Zelenskyy's warning.
About this summary

Originally published by ABC Color in Spanish. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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