As the Russian aggression on Ukrainian soil continues to escalate, NATO and Ukraine have come to loggerheads over NATO’s decision of not declaring Ukraine a no fly zone. Rejecting Volodymyr Zelenksy’s appeal to set up a no-fly zone over Ukraine to prevent the entry of Russian missiles and warplanes, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that they are not part of this conflict.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg further expressed that they have a responsibility as NATO allies to prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine. He added that declaring a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be even more dangerous, more devastating and would cause even more human suffering.
Strongly criticizing the move, Zelenksyy, in a televised address later on Friday, called the NATO summit a ‘weak summit, a confused summit and a summit where it was clear that not everyone considers the battle for Europe’s freedom to be the number one goal’. He added that that with this decision, NATO gave a green light for further bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages.
The latest development comes ahead of Volodomyr Zelenksy’s virtual address to the US Senate on Saturday evening. Latest information coming in from Ukraine suggests that the Russian forces have blockaded the strategic Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s second largest nuclear facility, Yuzhnoukrainsk Nuclear Power Station in southern Ukraine’s Mykolaiv Oblast, is being closed in by the Russian forces.
