Ukraine has closed its airspace to all Russian planes and stopped buying Russian natural gas after exporter Gazprom announced it would halt deliveries to the country.

Pro-western Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said at a cabinet meeting Wednesday that the government decided to ban all Russian flights from crossing Ukraine’s airspace “as an issue of the national security as well as a response to Russia’s aggressive actions.”

Last month, Ukraine banned all Russian airlines from flying into Ukraine but Russian planes have been allowed to fly over its territory.

Meanwhile, Russia’s state-controlled gas exporter, Gazprom, said Wednesday that it stopped sending gas to Ukraine because Kyiv had not paid in advance for more deliveries.

But Yatsenyuk said in the meeting that it was the Ukrainian government that had decided to stop buying Russian gas because the price offers from other European countries were “significantly better” than those from Russia.

Russia threatened Tuesday to cut off natural gas and to halt coal deliveries to Ukraine, worsening a dispute over a power blackout in Crimea.

Tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 and because of Russia’s support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.

The fighting between Russian-backed rebels and government forces in the Donbas region killed more than 8,000 people, according to United Nations statistics. Parts of Ukraine’s industrial heartland are in ruins.

Some material for this report came from AP, AFP and Reuters. [Read More]

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Source: VOA News: Economy and Finance