Kiev — Ukraine plans to allocate more than 16.6 billion hryvnias ($590 million) to guarantee air traffic in its airspace during the current crisis, the government announced on Sunday evening after an extraordinary meeting.
Earlier on Sunday, a Ukrainian flight from Funchal airport in Madeira en route to Kiev had to land in Moldova. The airline, SkyUp, said via Facebook that the foreign leasing company for the aircraft had banned the flight from entering Ukrainian airspace due to US warnings of an imminent war.
The Ukrainian Infrastructure Ministry spoke of difficulties due to "fluctuations in the insurance market."
The Dutch airline KLM suspended its flight connections with Ukraine on Saturday. The decision was made on the basis of a "comprehensive analysis of the security situation," it said.
Lufthansa said on Sunday on request that it was monitoring the situation in Ukraine "very closely."
"A suspension of air traffic is being examined, but there is no decision on this at the present time," Lufthansa said.
In view of the deployment of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers on the border with Ukraine, the US government warned on Friday that Russia might attack the neighbouring country before February 20.
The Kremlin vehemently denies such accusations.
Numerous states called on their citizens to leave Ukraine at the weekend.
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