Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has warned airlines and insurers that Russian airspace is becoming “completely unsafe”, escalating a dispute with Moscow over Kyiv’s expanding drone campaign against targets deep inside Russia.
In his nightly address on Tuesday, Zelensky said the “safe days in Russia’s skies are over” and warned that the scale of Ukrainian drone activity would have to be taken into account by carriers continuing to operate through Russian airspace.
Kyiv has for months intensified long-range drone and missile attacks against Russian military, energy and industrial targets, seeking to disrupt Moscow’s war effort far beyond the front line.
Zelensky said the warning was intended to prevent civilian casualties, arguing that Ukraine did not intend to target passenger aircraft.
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He said: “Today, we want to warn every airline that uses Russian airspace, every insurer, and everyone who still uses Russia’s key airports, Russian airspace is becoming completely unsafe.
“Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such – not a single civilian aircraft. There will simply be drones in Russia’s skies on a scale that has to be taken into account.”
The statement drew an angry response from Russian president Vladimir Putin, who described Zelensky’s remarks as “a declaration of state terrorism”.
“They are asking us to resume negotiations… but you don’t negotiate with terrorists,” Putin said.
Zelensky later described “drone-infested skies” as unsuitable for civilian aviation, adding: “The sky over Russia is currently for drones… as long as the war continues.”
The Ukrainian president nevertheless indicated that Kyiv could temporarily suspend its drone activity in Russian airspace as part of diplomatic efforts.
He said Ukraine would remove its drones from Russian airspace when asked by international partners, “for the sake” of diplomacy and negotiations, and only for specific periods and defined areas.
Zelensky also confirmed that Ukrainian forces had halted attacks around Moscow and St Petersburg for three days the previous week at the request of Washington.
The pause appeared to coincide with a reported secret visit to Moscow by CIA director John Ratcliffe.
US-led efforts to broker an end to the war have been interrupted since the outbreak of the Iran war in February, adding to uncertainty over the prospects for renewed negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
Putin said on Tuesday that Russia remained open to talks aimed at ending the conflict and indicated that Moscow was prepared to resume discussions with US officials.
Ukraine has repeatedly said it is ready to participate in peace negotiations.
The exchange came as Russia continued a sustained aerial campaign against Ukraine.
The Kyiv region was hit by major Russian drone attacks overnight for a seventh consecutive day, according to Ukrainian officials.
The Kyiv Regional Military Administration said two people were injured in the Buchansky and Brovary districts on Wednesday morning.
Civilian infrastructure, warehouses and residential buildings were also damaged, officials said.
Almost continuous air raid alerts have been in force across the Kyiv region and areas around the Ukrainian capital for the past seven days.
The attacks mark an unprecedented run of consecutive aerial bombardments since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, underscoring the continuing escalation in long-range strikes even as both sides signal an interest in restoring diplomatic channels.
For Ukraine, the threat to Russian airspace represents an increasingly important extension of its strategy of taking the war to Moscow’s rear. For Russia, the attacks and Kyiv’s warning to commercial aviation create an additional security and economic challenge, particularly for airports and airlines operating in a country already under extensive western sanctions.
The widening confrontation over civilian airspace also risks raising insurance and operational costs for carriers using Russian routes, while increasing pressure on governments and aviation authorities to assess whether such corridors remain commercially and operationally viable.
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