In the early hours of the Ukrainian morning, the European Union’s unified air traffic control service Eurocontrol issued a NOTAM – Notice To Airmen – restricting civilian operations in Ukrainian airspace.
The move came less than an hour before Russian President Vladimir Putin announced in an emergency message the start of offensive operations over Ukrainian territory, stating that the aim of the offensive is to «demilitarize and denazify» the country, but not to occupy it.
The Ukrainian aviation authority also extended the restriction to Belarusian airspace for aircraft with Ukrainian registration and vice versa. Transport Canada banned its operators from entering the Dnipropetrovsk and Simferopoly regions and recommends not to operate over Kyiv, Lviv and Odesa.
Russia also suspended civilian operations in the area until at least May 18.
As indicated by various intelligence reports, Russian offensive operations over Ukrainian territory began at 4 am local time, and at the time of writing, Kyiv’s Boryspil airport was beginning to suffer the first attacks.
Ukraine’s air defense systems are already fighting the first missions of the air offensive, and suppressing the defenses is expected to be one of the most important objectives of the Russian offensive because it would allow air superiority for the massive movements that follow the day-one missions.
This is a developing story.
