Ukraine recently announced it will close the country's airspace from Russian airlines starting Sunday.
«The Ukrainian government started suspending all flights between Russia and Ukraine. Another great example of Kiev officials fighting their own nation: three-fourths of the passengers were Ukrainian"- Medvedev wrote on his Facebook page.
The restrictions will affect around a million passengers each year, but the halt will hit Ukrainians harder. According to Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov, 70 percent of air passengers between the two countries are Ukrainian nationals, tens of thousands of whom migrate to Russia's richer economy to work.
"The government does things and it's the people who suffer," Ukrainian Alexander Vyshnevsky told the BBC, after checking-in for one of the last remaining flights to Kiev from Moscow. "Russia and Ukraine are like one country for me. Half of Ukraine is married to Russians. So this is total nonsense."
The conflict over the flights started earlier in September when the Ukrainian government said it would ban 25 Russian airlines, including two defunct companies, from entering the country's airspace, effective from October 25 as part of its anti-Russia sanctions.
During negotiations in Brussels, Russia had offered Ukraine's State Aviation Administration to lift restrictions on direct flights between the countries, as well as transit flights by Russian and Ukrainian carriers. But the parties didn't come to terms.
Travelers now have to seek alternative, more expensive and less convenient ways to see their relatives abroad.
