From the beginning of June, new restrictions on flights of small aircraft and business jets will be introduced in the central part of Russia.
According to the Association of Aircraft Owners and Pilots, civil aircraft will be prohibited from flying below 5100 metres in the Moscow air zone.
Almost the entire European part of Russia – from St. Petersburg and the border with Belarus to Yekaterinburg, Samara and southern regions – will fall under the restrictions. The ban will apply to private aeroplanes, helicopters and light-engine aviation. Exceptions will be made only for regular passenger flights, sanitary aviation, flights from state contracts and industrial monitoring.
The Aviatorshchina profile Telegram channel writes that the restrictions are being imposed “until the end of the SWO” (as the war against Ukraine is called in Russia ed.).
Sergei Ryabchinsky, director of the Central Chkalov Aeroclub of the DOSAAF, said that after the ban is imposed, his club will close, while some aeroclubs plan to move their work outside the Urals. Ryabchinsky linked the new measures to drone attacks on Moscow and other regions.
Aviation communities also suggest that the reason for tightening the rules could have been the crash of a light-engine aircraft near Kolomna in March 2026. Then, according to members of the small aviation community, air defence forces could have mistakenly shot down the aircraft of aviation blogger Pavel Koshkin while repelling a drone attack. The official results of the investigation have not yet been published.