A sanctioned ally of Vladimir Putin became the most senior Moscow official to enter European Union airspace since the start of the war in Ukraine, after Italy and France allowed her Russian government plane to travel to Switzerland.

Valentina Matviyenko, speaker of the upper house of parliament, ranks third in Russia’s hierarchy behind only President Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin. She’s leading a Russian delegation at conferences in Geneva organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, even as she’s under US, EU, UK and Swiss sanctions for her role in the war.

Matviyenko, 76, oversaw votes in Russia’s Federation Council to approve Putin’s deployment of troops and annexation of four partly occupied Ukrainian regions.

The EU banned Russian planes from its airspace days after the February 2022 invasion began, saying member states would “deny permission to land in, take off from or overfly their territories.” Matviyenko’s aircraft flew over Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea before traveling through Italy to Geneva on Monday, and departed for Moscow on Wednesday via French and Italian airspace, according to online flight-tracking data.

Italy cleared the Russian plane to enter its airspace at the request of the Swiss government, according to people in Rome familiar with the matter. The Italian government consulted with the authorities in France, which had also received an overflight request, before granting permission, they said.

The Foreign Ministry in Paris didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

A Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesperson declined to comment on Matviyenko’s case, but said the government can authorize exemptions to the local travel ban detailed in sanctions, “particularly if the individual is traveling to participate in an international conference.”

While Swiss airspace is closed to Russian aircraft, “exemptions are provided, in particular, for flights carried out for humanitarian, medical, or diplomatic purposes,” the spokesperson said.

Matviyenko attended the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament and the Summit of Women Speakers of Parliament in Geneva that the parliamentary union said are organized “in close cooperation” with the United Nations.

In an address to the womens’ summit, Matviyenko repeated false Kremlin claims that Ukraine was ruled by “Nazis” who’d taken power in a 2014 coup. She justified the invasion against the “Kyiv regime” and invited her audience to visit occupied parts of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine to counter the “information war against Russia.”

A European Commission spokesperson said there’d been no EU waiver of the bans on Matviyenko or on Russian aircraft. Member states could grant exemptions for “urgent humanitarian need, or on grounds of attending intergovernmental meetings,” as well as to facilitate political dialogue “that directly promotes the policy objectives of the restrictive measures, including support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

Russian and Ukrainian delegations were invited to the event to “provide a space for possible dialogue,” an IPU spokesman said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, said the Russian visit to Geneva “should never have happened.” Matviyenko’s “place is in the dock, not at international conferences,” he said in a post on the X platform.

With assistance from Samy Adghirni.