REUTERS
The number of violations has grown to 200,000.
The State Aviation Administration of Ukraine has for the first time fined a foreign air carrier for the illegal crossing into the airspace over Russian-occupied Crimea.
Ukraine back in March 2014 banned all carriers from taking off and landing at Simferopol Airport, and closed airspace over the entire territory of the peninsula, ArmiaInform reports.
Since then, the number of such violations has grown to 200,000, and no carrier had until now been held liable financially.
Read alsoUkSATSE estimates losses from Russian occupation of Crimea, Donbas
It is noted on August 8, 2019, the Kazakhstan-based Euro-Asia Air performed a flight within the restricted area over the occupied peninsula. After that, the State Aviation Administration issued a fine. Unlike Russian carriers, which carry out about a hundred take-offs and landings in Crimea daily and refuse to pay fines to Ukraine, this foreign operator voluntarily paid the UAH 136,000 fine imposed.
However, the agency said the amount of fines for airspace violations in Crimea by Russian civilian aircraft alone had already reached UAH 13 billion (US$552.7 million).
As UNIAN reported earlier, the Ukrainian State Air Traffic Services Enterprise (UkSATSE) said it had lost UAH 19 billion (US$816.8 million) after the Russian occupation of Crimea and part of Donbas.