Russia-Ukraine conflict: Growing tensions between Ukraine and Russia.
Kyiv:
Latvian flag carrier airBaltic is setting up more flights out of Kyiv this week to accommodate a spike in passenger numbers after European countries asked their citizens to leave Ukraine or risk war. painting.
“I don’t feel calm in Kyiv, and my parents are worried. So I decided to go home to wait for the next few weeks, until everything becomes clearer,” Giedrius Paurys told Reuters. after he and his wife left the flight on Tuesday. with four suitcases and two small dogs.
Last week, the United States warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could be imminent, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the country’s people to fly the flag and sing the national anthem in unison on February 16, the day when a Some Western media suggested that Russia could invade.
The warnings had caused the airBaltic’s scheduled Tuesday flight to Riga to sell out, so the company, at short notice, has scheduled additional filming for Tuesday and Wednesday to cope with the high demand. than.
By Tuesday afternoon, 66 people had booked for the additional flight. With only two bookings to fly to Kyiv, the 145-seat Airbus to pick up passengers from Ukraine was almost sold out.
Not all passengers are worried. “I don’t want to leave, my husband forced me,” Inga Paurys quipped, laughing. She and her husband, Giedrius, are Lithuanians living and working in Kyiv.
“He reads all this news and gets scared, and I don’t, so Kyiv is fine with me. Nothing has changed, we visited restaurants and sports clubs. sports,” Inga said.
Neighboring Estonia, one of several that has warned its citizens to flee Ukraine, has asked its remaining citizens to board additional AirBaltic flights and go home.
“Some of my friends have left Kyiv. Some have nowhere to go – they’re tense and hope nothing happens. Other friends are preparing to fight, and some are just panicking. “, Natalia Vereshko, a Ukrainian living in France who took a flight with her daughter.
“But on the street, it’s calm,” she added.
airBaltic CEO Martin Gauss told Reuters.
“In extreme cases, even if we have a plane in the air, we can ask it to turn back,” he said.
The company expects tickets under 100 euros to make flights more profitable.
Gauss said bookings for flights between Kyiv and Riga this weekend are happening at a normal pace, with people choosing to fly both ways.
The Kremlin on Tuesday said US assertions that Russia is ready to invade Ukraine are baseless claims.
