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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
1 September President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky made a statement in which he effectively announced an intention to close the sky over the aggressor country Russia. He warned civilian carriers about the risks of flying over the Russian Federation during drone attacks and emphasized: Ukraine does not threaten civilian aircraft, but drones in Russian airspace will have to be taken into account. Media report that this is the start of the audacious operation M&Ms, which had been discussed previously in the press. What this presidential statement means in practice, what consequences Russia has already faced and what it still expects, and how people in Russia and Ukraine are reacting — in the piece by GORDON.
"Russian airspace is becoming completely dangerous. Ukraine does not threaten civil aviation as such, not a single civilian aircraft. It’s just that drones in Russian skies will [appear] in such a way that this must be taken into account. Although the Russian authorities do not notify about this properly, de facto Russian airspace will be closed: the war unleashed by Russia closes its sky," — these words of Zelensky, spoken on the evening of 1 September, immediately sent Aeroflot’s shares plummeting, Meduza wrote, by more than 5%.
"The socialite went berserk": first reaction
Illegitimate president of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin called this warning "an appeal to state terrorism" (but for some reason does not consider his own actions — as a result of which Ukrainian airports have been closed since 2022 — to be such). The Russian Ministry of Transport assured that it would not allow "significant interruptions" in the operation of civil aviation.
However, during the first night after Zelensky’s statement, at the three Moscow airports — Vnukovo, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo — at least 77 flights were delayed or rescheduled, counted the channel close to propagandist Ksenia Sobchak, "Ostorozhno, Moskva". That same night the largest Turkish airline Pegasus turned planes bound for Moscow around in midair, Ostorozhno, novosti writes. Aircraft returning to the airports had been en route to the capital of the aggressor country from Bodrum, Antalya and Izmir.
"I tried to fly to Russia last night, but halfway there the plane was turned around and we returned... we’ll try to fly today. It seems Pegasus took Zelensky’s words very seriously. Because all their flights were canceled yesterday," one of the passengers told Post on 2 September.
On 2 September the carrier canceled six flights to Vnukovo and the same number of return flights, RBC reports, citing the airport press service. Other airlines continued to operate flights to Moscow. Fontanka also wrote today that Russians are complaining of mass cancellations of Turkish Airlines flights to Saint Petersburg. But, the publication claims, this allegedly is not connected to Zelensky’s statement — the company had "logistical issues."
"At present there are no actionable reports that flights to Russia will be temporarily stopped or that such a suspension is planned. However, I cannot confirm whether flights will continue to operate going forward," Ostorozhno Media said.
Zelensky’s words caused a major resonance. Sobchak staged a tantrum on her Telegram channel, declaring that the president of Ukraine is "f**king witty," and she reduced the essence of his message to one sentence — allegedly, Ukraine doesn’t care about civilians and will launch drones "where it wants." Ukrainian bloggers mocked Sobchak’s unhinged reaction.
OSUV "Dnipro" spokesperson Viktor Trehubov explained: the daughter of the former mayor of Moscow for the first time since the war felt that this concerns her personally, for example, "that the matter could affect her shopping in Milan."
"The socialite fell ill, a sad stream of foam ran down her cheek," the serviceman added caustically.
Accusations of terrorism from Putin are strange to hear, emphasized Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine.
"Every day Russia carries out terror against Ukraine and Ukrainians, brought the war onto its own territory itself, yet it rains accusations. Blurring reality is an eternal technique of their propaganda and politicians. But now it looks totally inadequate against the backdrop of their actions. This demonstrates that they specifically fear our measures. And that’s good," he explained.
Ukraine officially warned the International Civil Aviation Organization at the UN (ICAO) that Russian airspace is dangerous for civil aviation — and called on everyone to ignore it. "It is our responsible decision to inform ICAO and all airlines, as well as governments, of the need for caution — even if Russia refuses to fulfill its responsibility to inform them. We seek to prevent accidental incidents. War is returning to Russia’s home. Ukraine is exercising its inherent right of self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter," wrote Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha.
Rosaviatsiya in response called Ukraine’s warning "illegitimate" and issued its own NOTAM, stating that Russian air transport, its ground infrastructure, continue to operate, receiving and dispatching flights, including those of foreign companies.
ICAO, "against the backdrop of rising risks" of civil aircraft being hit by weapons "worldwide," urged its member states to be more committed to protecting civil aviation.
"And while the aviation sector is able to re-route flights and sustain operations during conflicts, such operational flexibility does not address the fundamental threat to safety," the statement’s authors added.
"Aviation detachment 'Rossiya' will be grounded." What the statement about closing the sky means
Zelensky’s warning was a response to recent Russian actions, including attacks with jet drones and massive strikes on warehouses of food, medicine, household appliances and building materials, says security expert Ivan Stupak.
"Why did the Kremlin get so worked up over the topic of possible blocking of air service? If Ukraine actually manages to implement this scenario, the aircraft of the aviation detachment 'Rossiya', which provides transportation for high-ranking officials across the country and the globe, will be grounded: to places where, of course, they are received — for example, Cuba, North Korea, Iran," he explained in a comment to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. "Business aviation used by Russian 'tops' will also be grounded: for example, those who own a Bombardier aircraft worth €60 million, or those who rent planes. Most likely, a new trend will appear — buying a private train for use."
Is this M&M’s?
21 August The Atlantic reported that Ukraine had considered a risky operation codenamed M&Ms. It envisaged massive attacks using up to 1000 AI-enabled drones in one night against Moscow airports, to halt civilian air traffic for an extended period and increase pressure on the Kremlin. The idea was that swarms of drones, autonomously without human intervention, would find and strike targets. When this operation was presented to Zelensky, he expressed serious reservations fearing that a civilian airliner might be struck, sources told the magazine. However, according to the magazine, in a desperate attempt to find leverage on Russia that could force Moscow to return to the peace process, he allowed preparation for the operation.
The Office of the President denied the existence of such a plan but confirmed that Ukraine sought to achieve prolonged closure of Russian airports, while denying the existence of a drone plan. As one source said, Ukraine does not have long-range weapons that would be precise and reliable enough to hit Russian airports without creating excessive risk to civilians.
After Zelensky’s public warning about the danger to civil aviation in Russia, The Atlantic’s author Simon Shuster wrote on X that this was an announcement of the start of operation M&Ms.
"One of the sources who initially told me about the plan confirmed to me this morning that it is that," the journalist wrote.
There is nothing terrorist about this, believes former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States and chairman of the board of the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center Valeriy Chaly. "Ukraine is obliged to notify ICAO. This is our obligation under the Chicago Convention. Because if we exercise self-defense, it is Article 51 of the UN Charter, and we have some means that create danger in Russian airspace, and now we have more of them, and I understand this is a warning that there will be more, so obviously this had to be done," he explained on Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on 3 September.
He recalled that Ukraine closed its airspace after the start of the full-scale war, while the Russian Federation is trying to prove "that everything is fine" despite recorded cases of civil aircraft being struck by Russian air defenses. Explaining how the warning works, the diplomat said that some airlines’ systems can automatically block pilots from flying into a red zone.
In his view, airlines will gradually and "without loud statements" rework routes. It is not entirely correct to speak of closing Russian airspace, because this is a warning about danger; moreover, Moscow will continue to pretend that "everything is fine," Chaly says. The warning primarily concerns Moscow and Saint Petersburg (and also a number of other main directions within Russia), Zelensky said. Therefore, in the diplomat’s opinion, it concerns at least the entire European part of the aggressor country.
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Собчак влаштувала істерику, літаки розвернули в повітрі. Попередження Зеленського – це старт операції M&Ms?". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: Gordon.
