With Russian soldiers still in Ukraine, western sanctions may seem toothless. Wrong. The sanctions against Russian aviation, for example, are beginning to show their power. Russian airlines are struggling to keep their western-made fleets operational and there have been dozens of near-crashes. Aviation in the world’s biggest country, in fact, faces near-certain disasters. And Russians will conclude that the war is beginning to harm them.

During the first week of this year, pilots of six Russian flights on Boeing and Airbus aircraft discovered such serious problems with their landing gear that they aborted the flights. Other pilots did the same owing to problems ranging from cracked windscreens to malfunctioning lavatories. A Russian-operated Boeing slid off the runway. That was all in only a few days.