Airlines cancel or divert flights to Ukraine

Some airlines have canceled or diverted flights to Ukraine in the face of growing fears of an imminent invasion russian despite intense weekend talks between the Kremlin and the West.

In an hour-long call Saturday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Joe Biden said invading Ukraine would cause “widespread human suffering” and that the West was committed to diplomacy to end the crisis but “equally prepared to other scenarios,” the White House said. Washington offered no suggestion that the call would lessen the threat of impending war in Europe.

The two presidents spoke a day after Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan warned that US intelligence shows a Russian invasion could begin within days.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has downplayed fears of an invasion, calling on the country to remain calm.

The White House announced that Biden will speak with Zelenskyy in the next few hours.

Russia denies it intends to invade but has massed more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border and has sent troops on exercises in neighboring Belarus. US officials say Russia’s military buildup has reached the point where Russia could invade at short notice.

Dutch airline KLM has canceled flights to Ukraine until further notice, the company said on Saturday.

Dutch sensitivity to the potential danger in Ukrainian airspace is high following the 2014 shooting down of a Malaysian airliner over an area of ​​eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed rebels. All 298 people died on board, including 198 Dutch citizens.

Ukrainian charter airline SkyUp said on Sunday that its flight from Madeira, Portugal, to Kiev was diverted to the Moldovan capital Chisinau after the plane’s Irish lessor banned flights in Ukrainian airspace.

Ukraine’s presidential spokesman, Serhii Nykyforov, told The Associated Press that the country has not closed its airspace. The Infrastructure Ministry said in a statement that “some operators are experiencing difficulties associated with fluctuations in the insurance markets.”

The call between Putin and Biden — following a call between the Russian leader and French President Emmanuel Macron earlier that day — came at a critical moment in what has become the biggest security crisis between Russia and the West since the War. cold. US officials believe there are hardly any days left to prevent an invasion.