Russia bans UK flights over its air space in retaliation to British sanctions

Russia’s civil aviation authority has banned UK flights to and over Russia in retaliation to a British ban on Aeroflot flights.

Rosaviatsiya said that all flights by UK carriers to Russia as well as transit flights have been banned, starting on Friday.

It said the measure was taken in response to the “unfriendly decisions” by the British authorities who banned flights to the UK by Russian flag carrier Aeroflot as part of sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It came after Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled the “largest and most severe” package of UK sanctions Russia has faced to punish Vladimir Putin.

They included measures to hit five more oligarchs, including the Russian president’s former son-in-law, and to target more than 100 businesses and individuals.

Mr Johnson said he was sanctioning “all the major manufacturers that support Putin’s war machine”, will ban Aeroflot from touching down planes in the UK and will freeze the assets of all major Russian banks, including immediately against VTB.

But the UK, the US and the EU are facing calls to go further to exclude Russia from the Swift international payment system, a move backed by Mr Johnson but facing resistance in Europe.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace had earlier ruled out the UK helping enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine because the RAF fighting Russian jets would trigger a “war across Europe”.