Ukraine.- Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Saturday that Moscow would consider any declaration by a third party of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as “participation in the armed conflict.”
Speaking at a meeting with female pilots on Saturday, Putin said Russia would see “any move in this direction” as an intervention that “will pose a threat to our service members.”
“In that very second, we will see them as participants in the military conflict, and it will not matter which members they are,” the Russian president said.
Read more: It was a difficult decision: Vladimir Putin assures for intervention in Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pressed NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country, warning that “everyone who dies from this day on will also die because of you” as Russian forces attacked strategic locations in Ukraine.
NATO has said a no-fly zone, which would ban all unauthorized aircraft from flying over Ukraine, could spark a widespread war in Europe with nuclear-armed Russia.
NATO is not willing to get involved
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has again asked NATO to set up a no-fly zone over his country, as reported by CNN.
This Friday, the 30 member countries of NATO met in Brussels, in order to discuss the next steps of the alliance with respect to Ukraine, and among the issues they discussed was the possible creation of a no-fly zone.
However, NATO is unwilling to get directly involved in the conflict, beyond supporting Kyiv’s resistance to an invasion that is killing civilians.
While NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Friday that a no-fly zone over Ukraine is not an option the military alliance is considering.
“We have agreed that we should not have NATO aircraft operating over Ukrainian airspace or NATO troops on Ukrainian territory,” he said.
The alliance is not seeking war with Russia, Stoltenberg stressed.
For his part, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the establishment of a no-fly zone in Ukraine by Washington and its NATO allies could lead to a “full-blown war in Europe”, CNN reported.
no fly zone
The Chernobyl exclusion zone, also known as the ‘Dead Zone’ or ‘Fourth Zone’, forms a territory of 30 kilometers around the Ukrainian nuclear power plant itself, according to information from the as.com site.
Read more: Russia agrees to ceasefire in 2 areas of Ukraine to allow civilian evacuation
Specifically, this extension includes territories of the Kiev Oblast and the Zhytomyr Oblast of Ukraine, next to the border with Belarus and only separated from the Putin-allied country by the Pripyat River.
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