MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. The resumption of direct air service between Russia and Cyprus is not being discussed at the moment, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Fourth European Department Yury Pilipson has told TASS in an interview.
"The resumption of direct air service with the Republic of Cyprus is not on the agenda at present, given the European Union’s illegitimate sanctions against Russian air carriers, which closed the European sky for our planes," he said.
Pilipson explained that Cyprus complied with EU restrictions in full, although the republic’s officials have repeatedly aditted that the national economy was sustaining serious losses as the flow of tourists from Russia was shrinking.
"I don’t think that any further comments are necessary," the diplomat added.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that, in response to a request from the Donbass republics, he made a decision to carry out a special military operation in Ukraine. He underscored that Moscow does not plan to occupy Ukrainian territories, instead planning to demilitarize and denazify the country. In response, the West started introducing sweeping sanctions against Russia and shipping weapons and military vehicles to Kiev already worth tens of billions of dollars at this point.