The aerospace industry has begun to evaluate the consequences of the sanctions the EU is imposing on Russia’s aviation in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Shipping giants FedEx Express and UPS have halted cargo flights to and from Russia, as the ripple effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine continue to widen.

With Russia now a global pariah following its invasion of Ukraine, supplies of Western-built aircraft, engines and spare parts face significant sanctions.

NATO allies have pledged to send additional lethal aid to Ukraine and will strengthen the alliance’s Eastern front in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

Ukrainian aircraft maker Antonov deferred comment after multiple officials and news outlets reported that the An-225 Mriya heavy airlifter was destroyed during fighting at an airport near Kyiv.

Six U.S. Air Force F-35As from RAF Lakenheath, England, forward deployed to Estonia and Lithuania Feb. 27 to further bolster the NATO air presence in Eastern Europe amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Did Ukraine make a mistake when it gave up its nuclear arsenal?  That question was first asked after Russia occupied and annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in March 2014. When the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991, Ukraine had on its territory 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads, 176 intercontinental ballistic missiles and 45 strategic bombers, constituting the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal. Three years later, Kyiv agreed to give it up in exchange for guarantees for its sovereignty and territorial integrity by Russia, the U.S. and the UK. Was it the right call? It was, said Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, in an Aviation Week Viewpoint written shortly after Russia’s seizure of Crimea. Pifer argued that the newly independent nation lacked the infrastructure and money to maintain a nuclear arsenal on its own. Ukraine also would have been an outcast, deprived of billions of dollars in economic aid from the EU and U.S. and access to lending from the International Monetary Fund. “Broke and friendless, a Ukraine facing a crisis with Russia would have done so alone,” Pifer wrote. Today, as Russian forces carve up the country and President Vladimir Putin declares it had never been a real nation, the question of whether Ukraine should have given up its nuclear weapons is back in the forefront.

Lessors are no longer allowed to lease aircraft to Russian entities following new European Union sanctions. Currently, more than half of the commercial aircraft in Russia are leased.

Germany is pledging to create a €100 billion ($112.7 billion) fund for defense investment this year and promising a dramatic uptick in annual defense spending in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

The Russian military does not have air superiority in Ukraine, with the U.S. Defense Department assessing that Ukrainian command and control has remained intact and the country is still operating air defenses and aircraft, a senior Pentagon official said Feb. 27.

Roscosmos will suspend launches of Soyuz rockets from Europe’s spaceport in French Guiana in response to European Union sanctions on Russia, the CEO of the Russian space corporation Dmitry Rogozin said Feb. 26 on social media.