Sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have prevented Russia from purchasing Western-made aircraft or spare parts. About 75 percent of Russia’s commercial airline fleet is built in the United States, the European Union or Canada.
Russia is re-commissioning several types of aircraft, as sanctions have limited the country’s ability to maintain its fleet of passenger jets. The planes returning to service include a Ukrainian-designed model that was grounded over safety concerns. Pro-Kremlin media outlet Izvestia reported on January 19 that 12 aircraft will be “reactivated” by Russian airlines in 2026. Ten of the planes have already been delivered to airlines to help offset the decline in the fleet, “which is being exacerbated by sanctions,” according to the report.
Sanctions imposed after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine have prevented Russia from purchasing Western-made aircraft or spare parts. About 75 percent of Russia’s commercial airline fleet is built in the United States, the European Union or Canada.
The planes returning to service include an Antonov An-148, a Ukrainian-designed jet that had been grounded in Russia since 2018 after a crash in February of that year that killed 71 people on board. Russia’s entire fleet of more than two dozen of the model was grounded after the accident, and in May of that year, Cuba stopped its national airline from flying a version of the same aircraft. Other planes returning to commercial service include the Ilyushin Il-96 and the medium-range Tupolev Tu-204/214. Both of these aircraft first flew in the final years of the Soviet Union.
The Tupolev is currently used by the national airlines of North Korea and Cuba, which are affected by sanctions, as well as by Russia’s Red Wings Airlines. A long-haul version of the Ilyushin passenger jet serves as Vladimir Putin’s presidential plane.
Other Tu-204/214s are used by Cuba’s national airline and a Russian cargo airline. The American Boeing 747, whose production was halted in 2023, is also preparing to return to Russian skies. These long-haul aircraft could reportedly be returned to service relatively easily, due to the abundance of spare parts produced for the more than 1.500 747s built since the 70s.
Despite being cut off from the US airline industry for decades, Iran currently operates a small fleet of 747s, one of which is almost 50 years old. Aeroflot, Russia’s national airline, has previously sent its EU-made Airbus jets to Tehran for maintenance. The Russian airline’s shortage of aircraft was scheduled to be filled by a production campaign to build 127 new aircraft from 2023 to 2025. As of January 2026, only 13 aircraft had been delivered to civil airlines. Russia has reportedly created a complex network of companies to evade sanctions on aviation parts. In February 2025, the US Department of Justice announced that three people associated with a company in Ohio had been arrested on charges of exporting $2 million worth of aircraft parts to Russia.