MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency, Rosaviatsiya, recommended on Saturday all national air carriers to significantly reduce their number of scheduled international flights, the agency’s press office said in a statement.

The agency recommended national air companies, which have registered aircraft on the lease with foreign companies, to suspend their international flights starting March 6 and to put on hold flights from abroad starting March 8.

"This recommendation is issued in the wake of high risks regarding a possible detention or arrest of aircraft of Russian airline companies abroad," the statement reads.

Moreover, the Russian Federal Air Transport Agency also recommended all Russian citizens, who are currently staying abroad, to resort to foreign air carriers’ service upon their return home, or chalk up the return routes via Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Qatar, the UAE, Turkey and Serbia.

The agency also recommended a combined scheme of returning home for Russian citizens, currently stranded abroad, and proposed air flights to Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland with the subsequent use of ground transportation to get to places of their destination.

The statement from Russia’s governing air transport body also stressed that all flights of the national air companies within the country’s borders are operated without any restrictions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised address on February 24 that in response to a request by the heads of the Donbass republics he had made a decision to carry out a special military operation in order to protect people "who have been suffering from abuse and genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years." The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans of occupying Ukrainian territories.

When clarifying the unfolding developments, the Russian Defense Ministry reassured that Russian troops are not targeting Ukrainian cities, but are limited to surgically striking and incapacitating Ukrainian military infrastructure. There are no threats whatsoever to the civilian population.