Rossiya Airlines, part of Russia's Aeroflot group, on Saturday resumed scheduled flights to Cuba, which had been suspended since Western countries shut Russia out of their airspace in response to its invasion of Ukraine.

The first flight of what will begin as a twice-weekly service took off for the Cuban resort of Varadero from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Saturday, Aeroflot said.

Russian airlines suspended flights to Cuba, Mexico and the Dominican Republic on Feb. 28 last year, four days after the invasion, which Russia calls a "special military operation."

The deputy prime minister for tourism, sport, culture and communications, Dmitry Chernyshenko, announced in May that regular flights to Cuba skirting the airspace of "unfriendly" countries would resume by July.