Ukraine sits where Central Europe meets the east. For years Kyiv Boryspil (KBP) was the main way out of the country by air. Lviv sat close to Poland and the EU. On 24 February 2022 Russia opened a full scale invasion and closed Ukrainian airspace to civilian flights. The ban still holds in September 2026.

Fifteen of Ukraine's twenty civilian airports have been damaged. That figure comes from the government and has not been withdrawn. Airports in the east and south took the worst of it. Some are wrecked. Others still stand but cannot take paying passengers while the sky stays shut.

In 2021 Boryspil handled 9.4 million passengers, about three fifths of the country's commercial traffic. In 2019, before Covid, the same airport was closer to 15 million. Zhuliany (IEV) served the city centre. Both Kyiv airports were hit in the first phase of the war. Kharkiv (HRK) sat in the fighting and was badly damaged. Dnipro (DNK), Zaporizhzhia (OZH), Ivano Frankivsk (OZH) and Mykolaiv (NLV) were put out of use. Odesa, the Black Sea gateway, took hits from the air.

Anyone who needs a flight now leaves Ukraine by car or train and boards in a neighbouring country. From the east that journey can eat a whole day. Ukraine International Airlines went bankrupt in 2023. Other carriers cut fleets or shifted work abroad. Ground firms lost their purpose overnight. Staff and equipment had no aircraft to serve.

Two state airports have been kept in working order: Lviv Danylo Halytskyi (LWO) and Boryspil. Lviv is farther from the main front and nearer the EU border, so insurers and many planners treat it as the lower risk place to try first. Boryspil is larger and Kyiv has often said the capital airport should open first. Both have been struck. Both still have runways, terminals and crews paid to hold systems, pavement and papers in shape. Lviv did not escape the war unharmed and it is not the only airport still fit to work.

Talk of a limited reopening ran through 2025 and into 2026. The State Aviation Service has studied a phased start with European authorities. Brokers including Marsh McLennan have worked on war risk cover, as they did for ships using the Black Sea corridor. There is still no date. European safety advice still tells operators not to fly in Ukrainian airspace. Officials give the same answer every time. Security first. Flights after that.

Reopening needs several things at once. The flight ban has to change. European advice has to move. Insurers have to sell cover airlines can actually buy. Owners of aircraft have to allow those planes in. Licensed people have to be on the ground. Lviv's mayor has said the airport could work within weeks once those conditions exist. The ministry has said that moment is not near.

The damage is real and wide. Most of the civilian network is hurt. Millions now travel the long way around. Lviv and Boryspil are being held so that if the sky is judged safe, Ukraine can join European routes again without building the system from nothing.