War in Ukraine: the Baltic countries close their airspace to Russian planes

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, bordering Russia have decided to close their airspace to Russian planes from midnight, universal time.

Here, an Airbus from the Russian company Aeroflot (Image illustration).

© AP/BusinessWire

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

All means are good and to continue to put pressure on Moscow and compel Russia to stop the war in Ukraine.

The three Baltic countries, bordering Russia, have decided to close their airspace to Russian planes from midnight, universal time.

Advertising

Read more

From our correspondent in Vilnius

,

As the Lithuanian Minister of Transport admitted, for the past few days there has been increasing pressure for his country to adopt this measure.

"

 ," publicly admitted Marius Skuodis on social networks.

While this Saturday morning, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland had already closed their airspace to Russia, pressure was strong on the Baltic countries to join them.

Latvia and Estonia were the first to announce their intentions.

Isolate Russia

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas justified the decision on Twitter: " 

 ," she said.

According to her, this measure is essential, because it is necessary to isolate Russia after this brutal attack.

#Estonia is banning Russian airlines from our airspace.

We invite all EU countries to do the same.

There is no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies.

#StandWithUkraine

— Kaja Kallas (@kajakallas) February 26, 2022

As with many decisions regarding reactions to the war in Ukraine, the three Baltic states chose to react together to lend weight to their actions.

At the end of the day, the Councils of Ministers met to ratify their decision.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_EN

• Lithuania

• Latvia

• Estonia

• Russia

• Ukraine