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Stranded plains bombed out buildings and unrecoverable debts, all brought about by Russia's invasion

of Ukraine, could end up costing investors billions of dollars. Right now there are around

$10 billion worth of Western-owned airplanes trapped in Russia. The owners are required to get

them back by Monday and Russia is making plans to nationalize them. Russian aviation is one of the

key targets of the sanctions imposed by the EU.

The sanctions prohibit the sale transfer supply or export of any aircraft or aircraft components.

Leased aircraft are included in these sanctions.

As such, existing lease contracts with Russian carriers have to be terminated within 30 days of the sanctions being imposed, and that means that all existing contracts must be terminated by the 28th of March, which is next Monday.

As soon as the sanctions were announced, airline leasing companies rushed to get their airplanes

that were leased to Russian airlines back, impounding 78 of them at airports around the world

over the last few weeks. The Kremlin moved quickly to block aircraft repossessions by passing

a law allowing foreign airplanes to be re-registered in Russia, effectively nationalizing

them. Russian airline companies lease a lot of planes. Ereflot Russia's national airline has

leased about half its fleet by value from non-Russian lessors. The Financial Times estimates that right now more than 450

commercial aircraft owned by Western companies are stranded in Russia with a combined

estimated value of over $10 billion. The airline industry reacted quickly to the announced

sanctions. The sanctions on the provision of spare parts had an

instant impact with the Dutch carrier, KLM, asking two flights that were on their way to Russia

at the time of the announcement to turn around mid-air. The legal mechanism for the repossession

of leased aircraft is known as the Cape Town Convention,

an international agreement that Russia has signed, which allows secured lenders such as aircraft

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