MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In 2015, Ukraine demanded that Russia must stop flights to Crimea and pay pending fines before talks on the resumption of air travel could start.
"Our airlines are conducting flights smoothly, and the same airlines' planes are smoothly flying to countries in Europe and around the world…at one point, Ukrainian aviation authorities told us that our companies are being fined for flying to Crimea and even sent us notifications," Neradko told reporters.
Crimea, which has a predominately ethnically-Russian population, seceded from Ukraine to rejoin Russia two years ago following a referendum on March 16 in which over 96 percent of voters supported the move.
However, Kiev and the West labelled Crimea's secession an "annexation" and started introducing sanctions against Moscow.
