United States President Joe Biden has banned Russian aircraft from flying in American airspace, marking the latest move to defend Ukraine in the ongoing war.
It was announced during Tuesday night’s State of the Union Address, following the same move made in Europe, the United Kingdom and Canada days earlier.
“Tonight, I’m announcing that we will join our allies in closing off American airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and adding additional squeeze on their economy,” the President said.
The announcement was followed by multiple aviation giants across the US cutting its operations in and to Russia.
The order includes passenger and cargo flights, “effectively closing US air space to all Russian commercial air carriers and other Russian civil aircraft,” according to the US Department of Transportation and Federal Aviation Administration.
It will be effective by the end of Wednesday and will prevent any aircraft on behalf of Russia from flying over the US.
During President Biden’s address to the meeting, he said he would continue to provide support to Ukrainians and “fight for freedom”.
However, he said that US troops would not be sent over to fight Russia.
“Let me be clear – our forces are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.
“Military assistance, economic assistance, humanitarian assistance, we’re giving more than a billion dollars of direct assistance to Ukraine and will continue to aid Ukrainian people as they defend their country and help ease their suffering.”
Boeing also joined the action and announced on Tuesday night it had suspended operations in Moscow and temporarily shut its office in Kyiv.
“We are also suspending parts, maintenance and technical support services for Russian airlines,” a Boeing spokesperson said.
“As the conflict continues, our teams are focused on ensuring the safety of our teammates in the region.”
United Airlines became the latest US carrier to suspend its routes to Russia, several days after competitors American Airlines and Delta Air Lines had already done so.
“United has decided to temporarily suspend transiting Russian airspace to operate our flights to and from BOM (Mumbai) and DEL (Delhi) India,” a message from United said, according to The Points Guy.
Flight tracking site FlightRadar24 showed that a United jet returning from India had taken a path to avoid Russia amid the announcement.
Reuters reporting United Airlines has suspended use of Russian airspace and tracking confirms United’s flights back from India now taking a path to avoid Russia. #UA802: https://t.co/ZYbDzz12VF#UA830: https://t.co/aeLYky5Ibf pic.twitter.com/0stHLPwazD
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 1, 2022
Late last week, all civil aircraft inside Ukraine had been restricted due to hazards from the ongoing war, seeing hundreds of in-air flights change course to avoid the country.
