MOSCOW: Russia on Saturday closed its airspace to flights from Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic in tit-for-tat punitive measures following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Britain has banned Russian flagship carrier Aeroflot from flying over the UK and several countries, including Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic, have closed their airspace to Russian carriers.

“Air carriers of these states and/or registered in them are subject to restrictions on flights to destinations on the territory of the Russian Federation,” the federal air transport agency Rosaviation said, referring to Bulgaria, Poland and the Czech Republic.

It added that the restrictions included transit flights through Russia’s airspace.

Meanwhile, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia and Romania on Saturday also said they were banning Russian flights.

“There is no place for planes of the aggressor state in democratic skies”, Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted.

Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa quoted Kallas’s tweet saying that “Slovenia will do the same”.

Romania said it was also closing its airpace to all Russian flights and repatriating its diplomats from Ukraine.

But humanitarian or emergency flights would be exempted from the ban, it added.

Latvian Transport Minister Talis Linkaits also said on Twitter that “Latvia will close its airspace to Russian-registered airlines for commercial flights,” adding that the decision would be formally approved at the next cabinet meeting.