A Russian Aeroflot airlines plane takes off from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
WASHINGTON, March 2 (NNN-Xinhua) — US President Joe Biden announced that the United States will close its airspace to all Russian planes in response to Moscow’s ongoing military operations in Ukraine.
Biden made the announcement while delivering his State of the Union address, the first of his presidency, to a joint session of Congress.
“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,” Biden said.
The US move followed similar ones made by the European Union and Canada on Sunday.
In retaliation, the Russian aviation authority said Monday that Russia will ban airlines from 36 countries, including the 27 members of the EU, from using the country’s airspace.
While condemning Russia and reaffirming US support for Ukraine, Biden reiterated in his speech that U.S. forces “are not engaged and will not engage in the conflict with Russian forces in Ukraine.”
Meanwhile, fighting continues as Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine has entered the seventh day, while a new round of peace talks is reportedly to take place.
A massive Russian airstrike hit the center of Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv on Tuesday, as rockets struck residential areas and buildings of the regional state administration, according to Ukraine’s State Service for Emergencies.
The agency on Tuesday reported Russia’s attack on the Kiev TV tower which had killed five people and injured five others.
Russia would strike the information warfare and psychological operation center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces as well as technological facilities of the Ukrainian Security Service in Kiev with high-precision weapons, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a regular briefing on Tuesday.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu vowed to continue the military operation in Ukraine until achieving the main goal of defending Russia from Western threats.
“The main thing for us is to protect Russia from the military threat posed by Western countries that are trying to use the Ukrainian people in the fight against our country,” Shoigu said during a video conference with senior defense officials.
Since the military operation started on Thursday, the Russian Armed Forces had destroyed 1,325 Ukrainian military infrastructure objects, Konashenkov said.
In addition, 395 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 59 multiple launch rocket systems, 179 field artillery guns and mortars as well as 286 units of special military vehicles had been destroyed, he added.
The access of Ukrainian troops to the Sea of Azov had been completely blocked, Konashenkov told reporters.
In the meantime, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on foreign ministers of Poland, France and Germany to increase sanctions pressure on Russia and provide more weapons and financial support to Ukraine.
Amid the deadly conflict, Russian and Ukrainian delegations held on Monday their first round of negotiations in search of a solution to the crisis in Belarus’ Gomel region, with no clear breakthrough.
The second round of the peace talks could reportedly take place on Wednesday, TASS news agency reported citing sources.
According to BelTA news agency, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko did not rule out the possibility of a meeting between Russian and Ukrainian presidents if progress was to made in the negotiations.
But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that it was too early to talk about such a meeting. — NNN-XINHUA
