US President Joe Biden revealed this Tuesday (03.01.2022) his decision to close US airspace to Russian airlines, as the European Union (EU) and Canada have also done.
Biden also promised on Tuesday that he will make his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, “pay a price” for the invasion of Ukraine and that he will manage to “save democracy” from the challenges it faces inside and outside the United States.
The war in Ukraine was the focus of part of Biden’s first State of the Union address, in which he announced his decision to close US airspace to Russian airlines.
“Putin is more isolated than ever from the rest of the world,” the president proclaimed before lawmakers from both houses of the US Congress.
“We will join our allies and close US airspace to all Russian flights, further isolating Russia and further suffocating its economy,” Trump said.
Biden’s announcement drew a standing ovation from lawmakers attending his first State of the Union address before both houses of the US Congress.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Monday that it was not an easy decision for Washington to make, which will surely provoke a reciprocal action from Moscow, because many of its airlines’ flights “fly over Russia to go to Asia.” “.
That day Russia closed its airspace to flights from 36 countries, including all those from the European Union and Canada, in response to the same measure adopted by these States after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to the Federal Agency of Air Transport (Rosaviatsia).
The European measures in retaliation for the military operation that Russia launched on February 24 against Ukraine have forced the Russian airline Aeroflot to suspend all its flights to Europe and its neighboring countries until the next months of March or May.
It has also canceled its flights to several of its destinations in the United States and Latin America, since the closure of European and Canadian airspace forces its planes to take a long detour.
jc (efe, afp)
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