Russia has seen a sharp rise in aviation incidents in the fourth year of Western sanctions that cut off access to spare parts for foreign-made aircraft, an investigation by the exiled news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe has found.
Russian airlines reported more than 800 equipment malfunctions that led to flight cancellations or emergency landings from January through late November 2025, Novaya Gazeta Europe caculated based on data from the Aviaincident monitoring channel.
That is roughly four times the number recorded during the same period in 2024, when just over 200 such cases were logged.
Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 banned Russian carriers from EU and U.S. airspace and blocked the purchase of spare parts for Boeing and Airbus jets.
Russia’s aviation chief Dmitry Yadrov warned in October that the country could lose 339 aircraft over the next five years in the worst-case scenario, including 109 foreign-made planes.
He said 200 helicopters, mostly domestically produced, were also expected to be withdrawn from service.
According to civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia, Russian commercial airlines operate a fleet of 1,135 aircraft, 1,088 of which are currently airworthy.
The industry has also suffered two accidents and two fatal crashes so far this year, killing a total of 53 people, the federal transport watchdog said in October.
The deadliest took place in late July, when an Angara Airlines An-24 flying from the Far East city of Khabarovsk to the town of Tynda crashed 15 kilometers short of its destination, killing all 48 people on board.
Investigators believe crew error was the most likely cause. The aircraft, built in 1976, was nearly 50 years old and nearing the end of its service life.
Facing what it called a “negative trend” of rising aviation safety violations, the government has ordered transportation regulator Rostransnadzor to carry out inspections at 51 regional airlines starting Dec. 1.
