Status: 05.03.2022 02:40 a.m
In an emotional speech, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy criticized NATO for saying no to a no-fly zone. The alliance had thus “given the green light for the bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has sharply condemned NATO’s decision not to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. “By refusing to create a no-fly zone, the leadership of the military alliance gave the green light for further bombing of Ukrainian towns and villages,” Zelenskyy said in a video.
“People will die because of you”
The NATO countries themselves had started the narrative that closing the skies over Ukraine would provoke direct Russian aggression against NATO. Addressing the Western Alliance, he added: “All the people who will die from now on will also die because of you. Because of your weakness, because of your disconnection.”
Zelenskyi also complained about the lack of support in delivering material. “All the Alliance did today was to put 50 tons of diesel fuel through their procurement system for Ukraine. Maybe so we can burn the Budapest Memorandum,” said Zelenskyy, referring to the security guarantees given to Ukraine in 1994 in exchange for the withdrawal of their Soviet-era nuclear weapons. “You will not be able to compensate us with liters of fuel for the liters of our blood that have been spilled for our common Europe.”
No-flying would escalate war
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg rejected Ukraine’s request for a no-fly zone after a special meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday. The alliance understands the desperation of the Ukrainian government, said Stoltenberg. However, if NATO intervened directly militarily in the conflict with Russia, numerous other countries in Europe would be drawn into the war.
To control a no-fly zone, NATO fighter jets would have to “shoot down Russian planes” over Ukraine, Stoltenberg said. “If we did that, it would result in a full-scale war in Europe, involving many more countries and causing even more human suffering.” You have a responsibility to prevent the war from escalating beyond Ukraine.