Airlines begin suspending flights to Ukraine amid fears of invasion

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Airlines today began suspending flights to Ukraine and the country’s government reportedly banned entry to Russian citizens over fears of an invasion and the threat of hit squads and saboteurs trying to enter the country.

Dutch carrier KLM announced it was stopping flights to and from the country until further notice, amid sensitivity in the Netherlands to potential danger in Ukrainian airspace following the 2014 shooting down of jetliner MH17 as it flew over territory held by Russia-backed rebels.

All 298 people aboard died in the disaster, including 198 Dutch citizens, while Russia was widely condemned as being responsible. Germany‘s Lufthansa also said on Sunday it was considering suspending flights.    

There was further upheaval yesterday as Ukrainian carrier SkyUp was forced to divert a flight to Moldova as the leasing company which owned the plane refused to let it enter Ukrainian airspace.

International fears of a large-scale Russian invasion now risks closing transport routes out of Ukraine. Avianews warned that Ukraine could soon become a ‘no-fly zone’ for commercial aircraft.

According to the publication, unless an agreement is made between the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure and international insurers and airlines, Ukraine will gradually be closed to air traffic.

It also emerged that remaining commercial flights to and from Ukraine face being grounded from tomorrow. 

Photos showed dozens of people waiting to board a plane at Kyiv’s airport as hundreds of others waited to check-in.  They are leaving after the US and the UK, along with other European nations, warned their citizens to get out of the country while they still can.

Although many of the 6,000 Britons in Ukraine have already fled, some are stranded in the country as they wait for passports to be issued for their newborn babies.     

The news about the worsening travel situation into and out of Ukraine came after Russia’s outspoken ambassador to Sweden claimed that Russian president Vladimir Putin  ‘doesn’t give a s**t’ about the risk of Western sanctions if his country were to invade Ukraine.  

Viktor Tatarintsev told Sweden’s Aftonbladet newspaper that ‘the more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be’. 

He claimed Russia had become more ‘self-sufficient’ amid the threat of sanctions and accused the West of not understanding his country. 

‘We are more self-sufficient and have been able to increase our exports. We have no Italian or Swiss cheeses, but we’ve learned to make just as good Russian cheeses using Italian and Swiss recipes’, he said.   

In a sign of the worsening situation in Ukraine, photos today showed U.S. staff members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has monitored the eight-year conflict in Ukraine’s separatist east, packing up and leaving the rebel-held city of Donetsk. 

They were fleeing as Britain’s Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis said a Russian invasion could be ‘imminent’ and Germany warned that tensions between Russia and Ukraine have reached a ‘critical’ point. 

It comes as the Pentagon said an hour long call between US President Joe Biden and Putin did not go well, with Defense Department spokesman John Kirby saying: ‘major military action could happen any day now.’ 

‘It’s certainly not a sign that Mr. Putin has any intention to de-escalate the tensions,’ he continued. ‘And it’s certainly not a sign that he is recommitting himself to a diplomatic path forward. So, it doesn’t give us any cause for optimism.’ 

There are an estimated 130,000 Russian troops and heavy firepower – including a large number of attack helicopters – massed along Ukraine’s border. 

Mr Lewis told Sky’s Trevor Phillips On Sunday: ‘We have to be realistic about Russia having 100,000 troops now roughly on the border that an imminent incursion by Russia is entirely possible.’

He was echoing warnings by Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said last night that millions of refugees could flee Ukraine if an invasion takes place and warned Vladimir Putin could strike ‘at any time’. 

Speaking in an interview with the Sunday Times, Mr Wallace added that there is a ‘whiff of Munich in the air’ – an apparent reference to the 1938 agreement that allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland in the hope that it would prevent the outbreak of war. 

Just a year later, the Second World War began when Hitler invaded Poland, with Britain’s Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s efforts to preserve peace left in tatters. 

Insurance giant Lloyds of London is about to suspend cover for flights passing through the country’s airspace as fears of an imminent Russian invasion grow, reported Ukrainian publication Ukrainska Pravda. 

The publication quoted information from unnamed sources in the aviation industry in a report picked up by the English-language Kyiv Independent.  

Anatoliy Ivantsiv, head of Ukrainian insurance firm Expo, told Interfax news agency that reinsurers Lloyds announced it would temporarily cease all conflict risk insurance over Ukrainian airspace from Monday.

Withdrawing insurance cover will mean that Ukrainian airlines, who lease almost all of their aircraft, will not be able to fly above Ukraine. 

SkyUp announced: ‘On February 12, the world’s largest insurance companies informed Ukrainian air carriers that they would stop insuring aircraft for flights in Ukrainian airspace within 48 hours. Such a decision is associated with increased risks of the outbreak of hostilities.’

The Ministry of Infrastructure, after a meeting today, confirmed that Ukrainian air space is still open and offered ‘additional financial guarantees’ to carriers to continue flying on international routes.

Advisor to Ukraine’s president’s chief of staff Mykhailo Podolyak told Reuters on Sunday that closing Ukraine’s airspace was ‘nonsense’ and akin to a ‘partial blockade.’ MailOnline contacted Lloyds for comment.

Veteran diplomat Tatarintsev said in his interview: ‘Excuse my language, but we don’t give a s**t about all their sanctions’.

‘We have already had so many sanctions and in that sense they’ve had a positive effect on our economy and agriculture. 

‘New sanctions are nothing positive but not as bad as the West makes it sound’, he added.

Sanctions being considered could target both Russian businesses and individuals in a range of significant sectors, such as the chemical, defence, extractives, ICT and financial services industries. 

However, Tatarintsev accused the West of not understanding the Russian mentality.

‘The more the West pushes Russia, the stronger the Russian response will be,’ he said. 

Tatarintsev insisted Moscow was trying to avoid a war. ‘That is our political leadership’s most sincere wish. The last thing people in Russia want is war,’ he claimed.  

Ukraine reportedly closed its borders to Russians amid fears that operatives from Russia’s infamous GRU spy unit are already suspected of having infiltrated Ukraine to spearhead an invasion by attacking behind the front lines.

The tightening of border controls came as groups of uniformed soldiers were seen walking in central Kyiv and an emergency government meeting on Monday was reported to be considering bringing in martial law.

Border guard spokesman Andrey Demchenko said: ‘There is Ukrainian legislation regulating the crossing of the state border. And border guards closely observe it.’

Dozens of foreign citizens are daily refused entry to Ukraine ‘for various reasons,’ he said. This includes Russians who must ‘comply with the conditions of entry before entering the country’s territory.’

The measures are being imposed amid fears that Russia could stage a ‘false flag’ attack in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine or elsewhere in the country, triggering a full-scale war.

In a sign of the worsening situation in Ukraine, a former deputy (MP) in the country’s parliament posted on Facebook that martial law could be on the agenda of an emergency meeting of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine tomorrow.

‘The meeting might be related to the consultations required by law regarding the declaration of martial law’, Ihor Mosiichuk said.

Russia has boosted its already huge force on Ukrainian borders by moving a large number of attack helicopters to forward positions, according to social media videos.

This includes a massing in Belgorod region, only 19 miles from the border with Ukraine, at the same site as in 2014 when Moscow intervened in the Donbas and annexed Crimea.

Sobering videos show Ka-52 Alligators, Mi-8s and Mi-24 military attack helicopters on the move in multiple locations in western Russia.

They were seen in the regions of Belgorod, Nizhny Novgorod region, Tver, Ulyanovsk and Yaroslavl amid suspicions they are being moved to the potential war zone close to Ukraine.

More were filmed in Dobrush, close to the border with Ukraine in the Gomel region of Belarus where vast military exercises are underway.

In Oryol region, military equipment believed to be a BUK missile system was filmed crossing a road, and a BM-27 Uragan Rocket Launcher was also filmed.

Attack helicopters are seen as an essential factor in any invasion scenario. 

On Saturday, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted that Russia would face ‘massive consequences’ if it invaded Ukraine, including ‘severe sanctions’. 

Today, Yvette Cooper, Labour’s shadow home secretary, said a ‘very strong and united international response’ is needed for ‘this Russian belligerence’.

She told BBC One’s Sunday Morning programme with Sophie Raworth: ‘It is immensely serious and nobody should be naive about what Russia is up to, and the scale of the troops amassing on the Ukraine border.’

Ms Cooper said there has to be ‘extremely strong and swift and severe’ sanctions. 

Today, a German government source warned that  tensions between Russia and Ukraine have reached a ‘critical’ point.

They were speaking on the eve of Chancellor Scholz’s departure for Kyiv and then Moscow. Mr Scholz said today that Russia would be hit with sanctions ‘immediately’ if it were to invade Ukraine.  

‘In the event of a military aggression against Ukraine that threatens its territorial integrity and sovereignty, that will lead to tough sanctions that we have carefully prepared and which we can immediately put into force, together with our allies in NATO and Europe,’ Scholz said.

‘Our concerns have grown… we asses the situation as very critical, very dangerous’, the source told members of the press, as fears grow that a Russian invasion of Ukraine is imminent.’

Meanwhile, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Russia carries the ‘responsibility’ for the possibility of war in Ukraine.

There was ‘the danger of a military conflict, of war in eastern Europe and Russia carries the responsibility for that,’ Steinmeier said in a speech to mark his re-election.

Photos today showed staff at the OSCE withdrawing by car from the city of Donetsk, which has been held by Russian-backed rebels since 2014. 

The staff were pictured carrying suitcases and wearing rucksacks as they climbed into white SUVs emblazoned with the OSCE logo.   

They were leaving after the US and the UK warned their citizens to get out of the country. 

Today, Russia said it was concerned by the decision of the OSCE to relocate some of its monitors.

The OSCE ‘informed the participating states of the decision by ‘a number of countries’ to relocate their national staff of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine ‘due to deteriorating security conditions”, foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

‘These decisions cannot but cause our serious concern.’

The OSCE has served as the world’s eyes and ears for the eight-year conflict across Ukraine’s Russian-backed separatist east that has claimed more than 14,000 lives. 

Zakharova said the OSCE move further inflamed tensions over Ukraine, adding that the monitoring mission could be used as a ‘tool’ to stage a possible provocation.

‘We call on the OSCE leadership to resolutely stop attempts to manipulate the mission and prevent the organization from being drawn into dirty political games,’ Zakharova added. 

On Friday, the Foreign Office updated its advice to tell UK nationals to ‘leave now while commercial means are still available’ amid mounting concerns they could get caught up in fighting – including a deadly ‘aerial bombardment of Kiev’. 

However, some defiant Britons have insisted that they will stay in the country, even as airlines start to stop flights and diplomats leave. Lecturer Charlie Gilkeson is one of those staying put. 

The 68-year-old Yorkshireman told the Mail on Sunday that he feels it would be wiser to remain, even as he finds himself in a ‘possible war’.  

He is staying in a flat he is renovating with his wife, whom he met in Russia. His children have urged him to come to the UK.  ‘I think it is safer here,’ he said. 

Northern Ireland Secretary Mr Lewis told the BBC’s Sunday Morning programme that the West must realise Russia could ‘move very quick’ despite diplomatic efforts to prevent an invasion of Ukraine. 

But he also defended diplomatic action so far, saying it had probably already delayed a strike into Ukraine from Moscow forces.

Discussing Mr Wallace’s comparison with appeasement in the late 1930s, Mr Lewis said: ‘If you look back to that period of time there was a lot of diplomatic engagement, there was an optimism at the time actually that there may be a diplomatic way through.

‘That eventually turned out not to be the case. It turned out that wasn’t the intent or aim of Adolf Hitler at the time.

‘What he’s [Mr Wallace] drawing comparison with is we hope that the conversation that he’s had that the Foreign Secretary and others… has a positive outcome and Russia does work through and find a diplomatic peaceful way out of this.

‘But he’s expressing that concern that we’ve got to also understand the reality that while they’re having these diplomatic conversations Russia has continued to move troops, we’ve got about 130,000 troops on the borders, and therefore we’ve got to be cognisant of the reality they could move very quick.’ 

Speaking later on Sky’s Trevor Phillips on Sunday programme, Mr Lewis said: ‘We will bring in more sanctions, that is what one of the repercussions will be… we already have some sanctions against Russia already. 

‘We have already taken the power in last week or so with the statutory instrument in Parliament to allow the UK to put more sanctions in place. 

‘I spent most of last week in the United states… what is very clear is that the United States are absolutely unified in this approach to ensure that we do not see an incursion and that if Russia does take that kind of activity then there will be repercussions. ‘ 

Mr Lewis was speaking after Mr Wallace’s warning that there could be ‘millions’ of refugees if Russia does choose to invade Ukraine.

He said that the potential for ‘millions of displaced people – refugees – pouring from one European country to another hasn’t been seen since the war and could potentially have a massive impact.’  

His comments echoed previous warnings by Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, who said that a ‘major war’ could lead to the ‘sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion’. 

Mr Wallace said that Moscow could ‘launch an offensive at any time’, with an estimated 130,000 Russian troops and heavy firepower amassed along Ukraine’s border.

‘It may be that he [Putin] just switches off his tanks and we all go home but there is a whiff of Munich in the air from some in the West,’ he added.

A source explained that Mr Wallace was concerned that if Putin strikes ‘come what may, then all the diplomacy would have been a straw man’.

US officials have discussed receiving intelligence that Russia is considering Wednesday as a target date to strike, but it was unclear how definitive the intelligence was.

But Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky sought to downplay the threat, saying: ‘The best friend of our enemies is panic in our country. And all this information is just provoking panic and can’t help us.’

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused the White House of stoking ‘hysteria’.

Poland is among the countries that are preparing to absorb an influx of people fleeing conflict if it does break out. 

Writing on the website of the think tank the Atlantic Council in December last year about a potential refugee crisis, Mr Reznikov said: ‘A major war in Ukraine would plunge the whole of Europe into crisis. 

‘The sudden appearance of between three and five million Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion would be just one of many major concerns facing European society.

‘For example, the EU relies heavily on food imports including grain. A major war would seriously disrupt and possibly prevent entirely many imports from both Ukraine and Russia, creating a whole range of food security problems for the entire continent.’

Poland is one nation neighbouring Ukraine that is preparing for an influx of refugees. 

Speaking earlier this month, the country’s deputy interior minister, Maciej Wasik, told Polish radio: ‘We have to be prepared for the worst-case scenario and [we have] been taking steps so as to be prepared for a wave of up to a million people.’

Armed Forces minister James Heappey warned Russia is in a position to be able to attack ‘very, very quickly’, with an estimated 130,000 troops on Ukraine’s border 

The alleged invasion plans, reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel, are said to detail specific routes that might be taken by individual Russian units and were analysed by the Secret Service, the CIA and the Pentagon before being handed over to President Joe Biden’s government. 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken held an emergency call with Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov to discuss the crisis yesterday, after the ‘extremely detailed’ plans stoked fears of war in eastern Europe.  

He warned his Russian counterpart that further aggression from Moscow would be met with a ‘resolute, massive and united transatlantic response’.

Mr Blinken had said that the crisis had reached a ‘pivotal moment’, adding that there continues to be ‘very troubling signs of Russian escalation’, including new forces arriving close to Ukraine’s borders.  

But speaking during a live broadcast yesterday, Mr Zelensky told the US: ‘If you have 100 percent-certain information about a Russian invasion of Ukraine, please share it with us’. 

He added that he realised ‘such risks do exist’ and that his country remains ready to take any measure necessary and ‘from any border.’ 

After the Foreign Office’s warning for British citizens to leave, the first haul of visibly relieved British families arrived at UK airports yesterday, including a medical student from Birmingham and a couple with a young daughter, who landed at Gatwick airport.

The student said the call for Britons to flee Ukraine caused ‘quite a panic’ and a rush to return home.

Ali Haider said after landing at Gatwick Airport from Kyiv on Saturday: ‘I’d been in two minds about coming back because of the advice coming out by the British Embassy, about the amber alert, red alert.

‘A lot of people, a lot of students were waiting for the red alert, and it happened yesterday. Once that happened, everybody booked their tickets and left as soon as possible.’

The 21-year-old from Birmingham said his university, the Dnipro Medical Institute in Dnipro, a city in central Ukraine, had advised students to ‘get out as soon as you can’. 

He said around half the students at the university are British. 

Mr Ali said: ‘I think the main thing that people were getting worried about as well is, because it’s along the Dnieper River, a lot of the people were saying, if Putin wants to suffocate Kyiv, push his warships along that path as well.’

The student said he had paid £210 for his one-way flight ticket and thought prices would get much more expensive over the next three days as more people rush out of the country.

He said he was hoping to return to Ukraine by June to continue his studies.

Mr Ali said Ukrainians’ opinions were split on the likelihood of a Russian incursion, but that the perception that Western media were blowing the crisis out of proportion was changing.

He said: ‘The Ukrainians are generally very laissez-faire as in terms of people, but the last couple of days they’ve started to get worried. And when that happens, alarm bells should be ringing.’

Another British citizen arriving at Gatwick on the same plane said Ukrainians did not seem worried.

Paul Meakin, 51, from Poole in Dorset, his Ukrainian-British wife Svetlana, 36, and their daughter, who had spent a week in Ukraine to attend a funeral, said most passengers on their flight had been Ukrainian, not British.

Asked about people’s attitudes there, the IT company chief said: ‘You wouldn’t even know. They don’t care, that’s what came across.’

That sentiment was echoed by Ukrainian Pasha Honcharuk, 24, from Kyiv, who said he was ‘not too worried’ and that he would have stayed home if it were not for work in the UK.

He said: ‘All news channels tell that there will be war but I don’t think so.’

But a Ukrainian business analyst, who did not want to be named, said ‘of course everybody’s worried’ about the threat of war. But she said this had not influenced her pre-existing decision to move to London from Kyiv for work. 

While many of the 6,000 Britons in Ukraine have already fled via air or west into Poland, there have also been reports of British families with newborns becoming trapped in the country waiting for the correct documentation.

Ken Stewart, 54, and his wife Tania, 36, are stranded as their baby Douglas does not yet have a passport, according to The Mirror. 

Douglas was born weighing 9lbs by cesarean section, and he and his mother are in a Kyiv hospital. Mr Stewart, originally from Edinburgh, and his family now face an anxious wait to see if they can get out in time.

Meanwhile, Ben Garratt and his wife Alice – both from Queen’s Park in London – are also trapped waiting for their surrogate-born baby to receive documentation.

The couple moved to Kyiv in December where their son was born thanks to the ‘very different surrogacy laws’ in Ukraine that allow for a swifter IVF and surrogacy process.

Mr Garratt said he and his wife are growing increasingly concerned after the Foreign Office updated its advice on Friday evening to encourage UK nationals to leave. 

Another British man – Daniel Williams, 45 – who is originally from the Isle of Wight and now lives in Kyiv as a business investor, has a four-month-old daughter with his Ukrainian wife. 

They are also stuck in the country, he has said. Mr Williams’ wife has a valid travel visa, but their baby does not yet have a British passport or a Ukrainian passport to get to the UK by commercial means.’