Russia’s flagship airline, Aeroflot, announced on Saturday that it would halt all international flights, except those to and from Belarus, from March 8.

The decision to halt Aeroflot flights was based on a recommendation by Russia’s civil aviation authority that advised Russian carriers to stop outgoing international flights from March 6, and incoming ones from March 8.

The announcement, reported by Reuters citing Russian news agency TASS, comes following a global backlash against Russian institutions and individuals after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.

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Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, in what Vladimir Putin described as an operation to “denazify” Ukraine, Moscow has faced tremendous backlash on the economic, cultural, and sporting front.

Shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began, several countries banned Aeroflot from entering their airspace, prompting a similar response by Russia towards foreign, international carriers.

Days earlier, Russia announced that it had banned airlines from 36 countries, including those of the UK and Germany, “as a retaliatory measure for the ban by European states on flights by civil aviation operated by Russian airlines or registered in Russia.”

Subsequently, a day earlier, Aeroflot was removed from the global reservation system, which is a marketplace used by travel websites, travel agencies, and corporations across the world to shop, book, and service flight reservations.

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While the expulsion of Aeroflot from the global reservations system was expected to significantly hurt the state-owned carrier, Russia’s decision to cancel all international Aeroflot flights may make the situation even worse.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, hundreds of soldiers and civilians alike have been killed on both sides of the conflict, but there seems to be no ceasefire agreement in sight.

Attempts by Ukrainian and Russian delegations to find a middle-ground in the conflict failed twice, but an agreement to arrange a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians has been reached.