KYIV —
Ukraine on Sunday vowed to keep its
airspace open and international travelers safe despite Western warnings that
Russian troops conducting massive drills near its borders could invade at any
point.
اضافة اعلان
The looming threat of the skies over Ukraine closing
came with a growing number of Western countries winding down their diplomatic
operations in
Kyiv and urging their citizens to leave immediately.
It follows a frantic week of urgent but seemingly
futile diplomatic efforts to resolve one of the most explosive standoffs
between the West and Russia since the
Cold War.
US President Joe Biden was due to brief Ukrainian
leader Volodymyr Zelensky later on Sunday about his hour-long phone
conversation with Russia’s
Vladimir Putin.
The White House reported there had been no
breakthrough during Saturday’s talks with the Kremlin chief.
French President
Emmanuel Macron said he had agreed
“to continue dialogue” with Putin in his own telephone conversation that same
day.
Western leaders are pushing back against Putin’s
demands that the US-led NATO alliance withdraw from
Eastern Europe and never
expand into Ukraine.
But Putin is dismissing calls by Biden and others to
pull back Russian forces from Ukraine’s frontiers.
Washington has warned that the Russian deployments —
estimated at 130,000 soldiers backed by various missiles and tanks — was
sufficient to launch a major attack “any day”.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on the eve of a
crunch trip to Kyiv Monday and Moscow Tuesday that Western allies would
“immediately” sanction Russia if it invades.
“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,” Scholz said.
Memories of MH17
The Dutch carrier KLM on
Saturday became the first major airline to indefinitely suspend flights to the
former
Soviet republic because of the rising risks.
Ukraine’s budget airline SkyUp said on Sunday that
its flight from Portugal to Kyiv was forced to land in Moldova because the
plane’s Irish leasing company had revoked permission for it to cross into
Ukraine.
SkyUP added that European leasing companies were
demanding that Ukrainian airlines return their planes to
EU airspace within 48
hours.
Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry responded by
holding an emergency meeting aimed at maintaining foreign travel and keeping
the country from becoming more isolated in the heat of the crisis.
“The airspace over Ukraine remains open and the
state is working on preempting risks for airlines,” the ministry said after the
meeting.
Industry analysts believe other international
airlines may soon also ban flights into Ukraine because of the growing cost to
insurers.
The travel industry is still haunted by the memory
of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 being shot down while flying near eastern
Ukraine’s conflict zone in July 2014.
All 298 passengers aboard the Amsterdam-
Kuala Lumpur flight died.
Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry acknowledged that
“some carriers are facing difficulties linked to fluctuations on the insurance
market”.
“For its part, the state is prepared to support
airlines and provide them with additional financial guarantees in order to
support the market,” it said.
The worries about air travel come with a growing
number of Western governments winding down their missions and advising citizens
to get out.
The US State Department on Saturday ordered all
non-emergency embassy staff out of Ukraine.
Russia cited fears of “possible provocations from
the Kyiv regime” as it also began pulling out some embassy staff.
“I am leaving
because of the situation, because I value my life,” Moroccan native Aimrane
Bouziane said before boarding his flight home.
“I think the soundest choice to make is to leave
Ukraine now,” the 23-year-old entrepreneur said.
The diplomatic drawdown has touched the staff of the
Organization for Security and Co-operation (
OSCE) monitoring mission in
Ukraine.
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.
But images on social media showed convoys of its
white SUVs leaving various parts of the conflict zone as staff moved to comply
with their respective governments’ travel advisories.
Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman
Maria Zakharova
said on Sunday that the mission’s partial withdrawal caused “serious concern” in
Moscow because the move further ramped up tensions.
The Ukrainian government has been trying to preempt
the flood of foreigners leaving the country by calling for calm and criticizing
US warnings of possibly imminent war.
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that
“all this information is only provoking panic and not helping us”.
Read more Region and world
.jpg)
.jpg)
