An armed pro-Russian separatist stands on part of the wreckage of the Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane after it crashed near the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014. The Dutch are due to announce on Wednesday 28 September the long-awaited results of an investigation with Australia, Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine into the July 17, 2014 downing of the flight. REUTERS/Maxim Zmeyev/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would allow U.S. airlines and codeshare partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of Crimea and the Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it would allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with “minimal additional risk.”

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula.

The FAA said security and safety conditions “have sufficiently stabilized in certain regions of Ukraine” to allow for additional flight operations. There have been over two years of safe flight operations on Black Sea air routes by non-U.S. airlines, prompting the change, it said.

The FAA said it was allowing flights to the three additional Ukraine airports, including one serving Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, because it believed there was enough of a “buffer from the area of fighting and associated weapons capabilities.”

The rules, which are currently scheduled to last until October 2020, also apply to foreign airlines operating a U.S. airline codeshare flight.</s>WASHINGTON, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it will allow U.S. airlines and code-share partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of the Crimea and Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it will allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with "minimal additional risk." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bernadette Baum)</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it would allow U.S. airlines and codeshare partners to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.

The FAA had barred flights over the war zones of Crimea and the Ukraine in April 2014, and expanded prohibitions after Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 was shot down while it flew over eastern Ukraine, killing nearly 300 people on board.

The FAA said in a notice filed on a government website it would maintain prohibitions on flights over the Crimea and parts of Ukraine.

The air safety agency said it would allow takeoffs and landings at Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia international airports in Ukraine, saying operations could be conducted with “minimal additional risk.”

Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, prompting international condemnation and Western sanctions, but since then there have been no major outbreaks of violence on the peninsula.

The FAA said security and safety conditions “have sufficiently stabilized in certain regions of Ukraine” to allow for additional flight operations. There have been over two years of safe flight operations on Black Sea air routes by non-U.S. airlines, prompting the change, it said.

The FAA said it was allowing flights to the three additional Ukraine airports, including one serving Ukraine’s second-largest city Kharkiv, because it believed there was enough of a “buffer from the area of fighting and associated weapons capabilities.”

The rules, which are currently scheduled to last until October 2020, also apply to foreign airlines operating a U.S. airline codeshare flight.</s>The FAA has modified areas in Eastern Ukraine that are off-limits to US airlines and their foreign codeshare partners, citing a stabilization in security conditions in the region.

The directive, which will remain in effect until October 2020, will open up takeoffs and landings at three Ukrainian international airports, as well as flights over four Black Sea routes, while retaining bans on operations in more volatile areas of Eastern Ukraine and the Crimea.

The FAA first prohibited flight operations in April 2014 in parts of the Simferopol (UKFV) Flight Information Region (FIR) by US carriers and airmen because of conflicting airspace claims between Ukraine and Russia arising from the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

That prohibition was expanded in July 2014 to include the entire UKFV FIR, as well as the Dnipropetrovsk FIR (UKDV), following a rise in hostilities between the Ukraine military and pro-Russian separatists, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 that month, which killed 280 passengers and 15 crew.

Following two additional extensions in 2015 and 2016, the FAA has now proposed to extend the prohibition for another two years, but only in the portions of the UKFV and UKDV FIRs where there is still a continuing hazard to civil aviation.

The FAA is extending the prohibition in the Eastern part of UKDV, but will be permitting US civil operations in the Western portion of the region. The three airports now open to US airlines and their codeshare partners are all located within the flight prohibition area of the UKDV FIR, but will be receiving exemptions from the FAA to facilitate US aircraft.

They include the Kharkiv International Airport (UKHH), which serves the country’s second largest city of Kharkiv; the Dnipropetrovsk International Airport (UKDD); and Zaporizhzhia International Airport (UKDE). The FAA said those airports are safe because of a “buffer from the area of fighting and associated weapons capabilities.”

While operations over the Crimean Peninsula in the UKFV FIR remain suspended, the FAA will allow US civil operations over four Black Sea routes, which are over the high seas and deemed to be sufficiently offshore from the Crimea.

In its decision to extend the prohibitions in the two Eastern Ukrainian regions, the FAA cited concerns that the government of Ukraine “has not mitigated the hazards. . .necessitating a continuing, albeit more limited, flight prohibition.” The agency also cited an “overwhelming Russian military presence and weapon capabilities” on the Crimean Peninsula, which it said creates a continuing risk for misidentification of aircraft flying over the peninsula and in nearby airspace.</s>The Infrastructure Ministry of Ukraine says the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA, the United States) has allowed the U.S. air companies to resume flights in the Simferopol and Dnipropetrovsk flight information regions.

The press service of the Infrastructure Ministry announced this in a statement, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Infrastructure Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Omelian has said that the Federal Aviation Administration of the USA has allowed American air companies and their partners to resume flights to three Ukrainian airports and over a part of the air space over the Black Sea," reads the statement.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, in March 2018, the Ukraerorukh state air navigation servicing enterprise and the FAA said they were eying resumption of flights of airlines registered in the USA within the Simferopol and Dnipropetrovsk flight information regions.</s>Kharkiv City Council approved the decision about naming a new street after Alexandra Belova — the recognized Righteous Among the Nations. This has been shared by the President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Boris Lozhkin on his Facebook page.

"Kharkiv became the first city to join the initiative of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine "The Righteous People of My City," noted Lozhkin.

The Righteous Among the Nations is the title established by the Yad Vashem National Memorial to the Holocaust victims to honor the heroes who, risking their own lives, saved Jews during the Second World War. There are more than 2.6 thousand of the Righteous among the Nations in Ukraine, according to Yad Vashem. "Of course, in fact there are many more of them, and the work to restore the facts of saving Jews is still ongoing", says Lozhkin.

According to him, in September the JCU appealed to the local councils of the Ukrainian cities with a proposal to name a new street, square or a mini-park with the name of one of the Righteous Among the Nations – a native of this city, and to place a corresponding memorable sign there.

A Kharkiv journalist Alexandra Belova is a recognized Yad Vashem Righteous among the Nations, who in 1942 saved two Jewish girls, the children of her neighbor Rosalia Arinberg – an 11-year-old Yelena and a three-year-old Ira. As well as Rosalia herself.

Rosalia Arinberg together with the children got into the ghetto, but was able to escape. Having left the girls on the way to Kharkiv, she went to Alexandra Belova asking for help. Alexandra walked 40 km in the minus 20 degrees freezing cold weather and brought the children to her house on a sled.

The younger child, Ira, was taken by the Arinberg’ housemaid – Zinaida Logvinenko. Alexandra Belova was hiding Rosalia and her elder daughter Lena. The girl was warned not to approach the window, but once she looked out onto the street, and someone of the neighbors noticed her. Then the family decided to move Lena to the house on the other side of the street, to the pre-war co-worker of Rosalia Arinberg – to Galina Zozulevich. Soon the Arinbergs were able to leave Kharkiv with the prepared by Belova forged documents.

A few months later, Alexandra was shot by the Gestapo for the salvation of a Jewish family and links with the partisans.

Saved by her Rosalia Arinberg lived to be 90 years old. Her younger daughter lives in Germany, and the elder, Yelena Scherbakova, died last year in Kharkiv.

"This is a heroic deed of a person who, at the cost of her life, saved the others. This is a tribute to the memory. Kharkiv honors its heroes. Unfortunately, this has not been done earlier, but we have corrected our mistake. I think, we should have named a street in honor of Alexandra Belova a long time ago, and now one of the streets will receive her name", declared earlier the First Deputy Mayor of Kharkiv Igor Terekhov.

"I hope that the example of Kharkiv will be followed by the other cities, to which we have made the relevant proposals," says Lozhkin.
The Federal Aviation Administration states that it will allow U.S. airlines to resume flights at three Ukrainian airports, at Kharkiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhia, and over parts of the Black Sea, citing improved safety and security in parts of Ukraine.