Germany closes airspace to Russia

New Delhi, Feb 27: Germany has announced that it would close its airspace to Russian aircraft amid Moscow's military action in Ukraine, thus joining a growing list of European countries that have already imposed restrictions on Russian airlines. Moscow has vowed a reciprocal response, RT reported.

Germany's Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure announced that Transport Minister Volker Wissing "supports the blocking of German airspace for Russian aircraft" and had "ordered everything to be prepared for this".

Additionally, German airline Lufthansa cancelled all upcoming flights to Russia and announced that "flights that are in Russian airspace" would "leave it again shortly", RT reported. Germany is the latest in a string of European countries which have closed their airspace to Russian aircraft, including the UK, Poland, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic, among others.

Russia responded by closing its own airspace to the countries, the report said. On Sunday, Russia's Federal Agency for Air Transport said the "unfriendly decisions of the aviation authorities of Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Estonia" had meant Russia would be introducing its own flight restrictions on those countries, the report said.

Germany also joined the European Commission, France, Italy, the UK, Canada, and the US on Saturday in announcing a new round of sanctions against Russia, revealing that "selected Russian banks" would be "removed from the SWIFT messaging system", the report said. It was also reported that Germany would be sending anti-tank weapons and surface-to-air missiles to Ukraine "as soon as possible".