February 27 (SeeNews) - Russia's air transport agency on Sunday said it is closing its airspace for planes from Slovenia and three Baltic states in response to a similar ban on their part.
The four countries are the latest addition to a list of countries, including Bulgaria and Romania, on which Russia has imposed a reciprocal flight ban.
"Due to unfriendly moves by aviation authorities of Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia and Estonia, restrictions will be introduced for air carriers of the above-mentioned states and/or airlines registered there," Russia’s Federal Agency for Air Transport (Rosaviatsiya) said.
"The restrictions apply to "flights to destinations on the Russian territory, including transit flights via the Russian Federation’s airspace," it added.
A day earlier, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovenia, alongside other countries in Europe, closed their airspace for Russian airlines following Russia's military invasion of Ukraine.
As of Saturday, aircraft belonging to Russian companies will not be allowed to fly over or land in Romanian territory, Romanian government spokesman Dan Carbunaru said in a live-streamed press conference on Saturday.
"The government adopted a decision banning the registration of aircraft registered in the Russian Federation and operators registered in the Russian Federation with an operating license issued by the competent authority of the Russian Federation," the Slovenian government said.
"Bulgaria imposes a ban on Russian aircraft taking off, landing and entering national airspace," the country's transport ministry said in a statement .
On Thursday, shortly after Russia started shelling Ukrainian territory, Moldova, which shares a 1,222 km border with Ukraine, closed its entire airspace.
Elsewhere in Europe, UK, Finland, Denmark, Austria also announced that they will implement a similar ban on Russian airlines, while Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Czech Republic already did.