“Transport Minister Volker Wessing supports the closure of German airspace to Russian aircraft” and “ordered that the necessary arrangements be made in preparation for this,” the spokesman said.
Germany joins Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia and Bulgaria, which have closed their airspace to Russian aircraft.
Moscow, in turn, began preventing aircraft from those countries from crossing its airspace.
For its part, the German company Lufthansa announced on Saturday the suspension of its flights to and through Russia.
A Lufthansa spokesman told AFP on Saturday that the company will not use Russian airspace for the next seven days” and that “flights to Russia will be suspended during this period.”
The company added that “the flights in Russian airspace will soon leave,” stressing that it “continues to closely monitor the situation.”