Russia's Aeroflot says halting all flights abroad from March 8

In this file photo taken on April 04, 2020 an Aeroflot plane is seen behind a fence at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

Russia's flagship airline Aeroflot said Saturday that it was suspending all of its international flights beginning March 8, as Moscow faces down waves of Western sanctions over its military incursion in Ukraine.

An Aeroflot statement on the "temporary suspension of all international flights from March 8," cited new "circumstances that impede the operation of flights," noting that all domestic routes would continue unchanged as well as flights to neighbouring Belarus.