The airports of Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia have been closed for security reasons, Ukrainian Defense Ministry official Victoria Kushnir said on Monday.

"We don't have any other information except that the airports have been closed for security reasons," Kushnir told a briefing in Kyiv, responding to a question from Interfax-Ukraine on the reasons for these measures.

Kushnir added that issues relating to the closure of airports are outside of the terms of reference of the Defense Ministry and the body in charge of these issues is the Ukrainian Security Service under the law on the fight against terrorism.

According to earlier reports, the Ukrainian State Aviation Service imposed a ban on flights to the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhia airports beginning at 00.00 on December 13 and the ban has been extended until the morning of Tuesday, December 16.