Zelensky’s office sees ‘no point’ in closing Ukraine’s air space - Reuters
Earlier, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko reported that air service over Ukraine would most likely be suspended on Monday
MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Adviser to Ukrainian president's chief of staff Mikhail Podolyak said Kiev sees no point in closing Ukraine’s air space on Sunday.
"The most important point is that Ukraine itself sees no point in closing the sky. This is nonsense. And, in my opinion, it somewhat resembles a kind of partial blockade," Reuters quoted him as saying.
Earlier, Ukrainian lawmaker Aleksey Goncharenko reported that air service over Ukraine would most likely be suspended on Monday, adding that the owners of leased planes were already forbidding their aircraft to enter Ukraine’s air space.
On Saturday, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines has suspended flights to Ukraine as well as all the flights in its air space. Ukraine’s SkyUP airlines reported on Sunday that its plane traveling from Portugal was forced to land in Chisinau instead of Kiev on Saturday, since the Irish company that owns the aircraft informed it of a ban on entering Ukrainian air space.
Lately, Ukraine and the West have been increasingly echoing claims of an alleged possible Russian "invasion" of Ukraine ever more frequently. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov branded such information as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tensions, emphasizing that Russia does not pose a threat to anyone. That said, he didn’t exclude the possibility of provocations being whipped up in order to justify such claims and warned that attempts to resolve the problem in southeastern Ukraine through the use of force would have the most serious consequences.