13 minutes agoStoltenberg: Ukraine must not become NATO war with Russia
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)NATO must not allow Ukraine's Russian invasion to cross into a war between coalition and Moscow, the chief said Friday NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, again excluding a restricted flight zone. “We have the responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond the borders of Ukraine and transform into a [...]
NATO must not allow Ukraine's Russian invasion to cross into a war between coalition and Moscow, the chief said Friday NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, again excluding a restricted flight zone.
“We have the responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond the borders of Ukraine and to turn into a full fight between Russia and NATO”, he said.
He warned that a no-fly zone over Ukraine “would most likely lead to a full fight between NATO and Russia”, causing “even more suffering, even more death and destruction”.
Stoltenberg said a no-fly zone over Ukraine would mean that NATO would have to remove Russian air defence systems not only in Ukraine, but also around Belarus and Russia.
“This means that we should be ready to crash Russian planes, because a stop-flight zone is not just something we declare we will put”, he told AFP at the diplomacy forum in Turkey's Antalya organised.
He added that the training of tens of thousands of Ukrainian troops from NATO member states in recent years, as well as the supply of military equipment, had resulted in extremely significant “ (for Ukrainian forces) in the fight against Russian invading forces”.
The most important thing is that President (Vladimir) Putin must end this meaningless war,”, he said.
He also praised Turkey's bid to facilitate talks Thursday between the foreign ministers of Russia and Ukraine in Antalya.
It is important that allies continue to try to support, facilitate a political solution”, he said.
The no-fly zone is an area of airspace over an entire country or part of it where no aircraft or any other air object is allowed to fly except those that control airspace.
It is usually undertaken to protect civilians on the ground during a war, as well as to allow safe delivery of humanitarian aid.
Russia has begun its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued the order for the invasion, since he has not received assurances from NATO that he will no longer expand eastward.
