Russia condemns Kyiv warning on Russian airspace to UN agency

Russia said Friday it had asked the UN civil aviation agency ICAO to condemn Kyiv's warnings on making Russian airspace "extremely dangerous", denouncing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's statements as "illegal".

Zelensky warned airlines earlier this week that Russian airspace would be "completely unsafe" and filled with Ukrainian drones.

Russian President Vladimir Putin branded the warning "terrorism".

Russia's foreign ministry said the authorities had sent a protest note to the ICAO's chief, calling on him to "condemn the Ukrainian regime's unlawful interference to civil aviation and creating direct threats to it".

In a statement, it called Ukraine's statements "reckless terrorist actions that contravene international law".

Russia and Ukraine have been at war for 4.5 years and Ukrainian airspace has been closed since 2022.

The ICAO, based in Montreal, on Wednesday called on its members to ensure the safety of civilian aircraft, following Zelensky's statement.

"Ukraine does not threaten civilian aviation as such -- not a single civilian aircraft," Zelensky said last week.

"There will simply be drones in Russia's skies on a scale that has to be taken into account."

Kyiv has been launching drones into Russia for more than four years in retribution for Moscow's daily attacks on Ukrainian cities.