REUTERS
Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan has announced Ukraine will provide its feedback this week on recommendations issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) on the restriction of flights for European airlines over the eastern part of Ukraine.
"I am grateful to colleagues from the European Union who did not present us with a fait accompli but entered the negotiation process with us. I had a conversation about this with European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport Ms. [Violeta] Bulc. We agreed that this week we will provide the Ukrainian side's feedback, stating that we consider this bulletin does not correspond to reality. It's a week already we have been waiting for the feedback from other Ukrainian departments, and I hope that we will receive it as soon as possible and share it with the European side," the minister said at a briefing.
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"At the moment we do not understand the grounds for tougher security measures because, according to our information, there is no worsening of the situation. The European partners explained the fact by their increased security requirements, and this was the reason for this draft bulletin. I hope that the facts that the Ukrainian side will provide will be sufficient to prevent the release of such a document," he said.
At the same time, the minister noted that, despite the fact that the EASA decision will not be binding, many airlines will take it into consideration.
As UNIAN reported, the EU wants to close the airspace over three Ukrainian cities, namely Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhia in the country's east. The State Aviation Service of Ukraine received an EASA draft bulletin designed to introduce a no-fly zone in eastern Ukraine, as the document deems flights in the area to be dangerous.