MOSCOW, December 1. /TASS/. Ukraine has moved the high-risk zones of missile launches westwards, a spokesman for the Russian civil aviation authority Rosaviatsiya has told the media.

According to the official, Ukraine last night issued a new "notification to airmen" (NOTAM) to the effect it has moved the high-risk zones westwards, away from Russia’s territorial waters.

"The new zones lie over international waters. The territorial waters of Russia are not affected. This zone is within Russian air traffic controllers’ zone of responsibility, but this will not affect flight safety," he said.

Ukraine’s missile launches in the Black Sea pose no threat to the citizens of Crimea and all flights to the peninsula are performed as scheduled, the republic’s head Sergey Aksyonov told reporters.

"The Armed Forces (of Russia) fully ensure security of Russian citizens, including on the territory of the Crimean Republic. All our flights are performed as scheduled," Aksyonov said commenting on the situation around Ukraine’s missile launches.

The Crimean leader stressed that Ukraine’s authorities are regularly trying "to play dirty tricks" but he is sure that "this is not dangerous for the life and health of our citizens, everything will be okay."

In the meantime, as Rosaviatsiya said, the other high-risk zones lying southwest and southeast of the peninsula have remained unchanged to incorporate part of airspace over Russia’s territorial waters. However, missile launches are not being carried out there.

Ukrainian military started missile exercises including live launches near Ukraine’s border with Crimea on Thursday morning. Earlier, Rosaviatsiya said that Ukraine was going to hold missile exercises in the Simferopol flight information region (FIR) over the city of Simferopol and part of the Black Sea on December 1 and 2. It also issued a special notification about high-risk zones in that region. Later Ukraine declared it was introducing more high-risk zones there.