Kyiv tells ICAO that Russian airspace is no longer safe for civil flights

Ukraine formally notified the International Civil Aviation Organization on 2 September that Russian airspace is not safe for civil aviation. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the notice was filed because military activity inside Russia has risen and because Moscow has not issued the warnings that would normally follow.

“We urge everyone to avoid it,” Sybiha wrote. “Russia has been deliberately ignoring the existing threats as a result of its aggression against Ukraine, which has already led to several incidents in the past years.” He said the aim was to stop an unintended collision between a civilian airliner and a war that has moved onto Russian territory. He cited Article 51 of the UN Charter, the self-defence clause, as the legal frame for Ukraine’s own strikes.

What Zelenskyy said the day before

On 1 September President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told airlines, insurers and anyone still using Moscow and St Petersburg airports that “the Russian sky is becoming completely dangerous” and that the war Russia started “is closing its own skies.” He said Ukraine was not aiming at civil aviation. He said the growing drone traffic had to be priced by the industry anyway.

Ukraine has closed its own commercial airspace since February 2022. This year its drones have reached oil refineries and depots near Moscow and St Petersburg and other sites more than 2,000 kilometres from the border. Military sources in Kyiv talk about a target of 1,000 drones a day. Current launch rates are described as a few hundred.

Who still flies the route

US and most European carriers already avoid Russian airspace. The traffic that remains is Chinese, Turkish, Emirati and other Gulf airlines, plus Russian domestic and some third-country flights into Sheremetyevo, Vnukovo and Pulkovo. On 2 September Flightradar24 still showed a full map over Russia. Sheremetyevo logged 21 cancellations and 235 delays. Vnukovo logged 22 cancellations and 94 delays. Pegasus Airlines cancelled some Russia flights for “technical and operational” reasons and did not mention drones.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would not allow “any significant disruption to civil aviation.” That is a promise about Russian controllers and Russian air defence, not about Ukrainian launch rates.

What an ICAO notice actually does

ICAO does not close airspace. States do. A notice from Kyiv puts a written risk on the desk of every civil-aviation authority and every insurer that still writes hull cover for flights over Russia. Some will ignore it. Some will raise premiums. Some will reroute. The practical effect will show up in winter schedules and in the price of a Beijing-Europe ticket that can no longer cut across Siberia.

Sybiha framed the filing as a responsible act Russia had refused to perform. Peskov framed it as an attempt to export the war into civilian corridors. Airlines that still fly the corridor now have both statements in the same file. The next incident, if there is one, will be read against that paper trail.