Kirby: No-Fly Zone Would Not Have Prevented Military Base Strike Near Polish Border

On Sunday, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on ABC’s “This Week” that a no-fly zone over Ukraine would not have prevented Russia from striking a military base less than 20 miles from the Polish border.

Anchor Martha Raddatz said, “Ukraine’s defense minister called this a terror attack near the NATO border saying action must be taken to stop this, close the sky. Could a no-fly zone could have stopped this?”

Kirby said, “No, I don’t think so, Martha. Look, I mean, no-fly zone has a nice air policing kind of sound to it, but I participated in one as a young officer on an aircraft carrier way back in the early 90s. It is combat. You have to be willing to shoot and to be shot at. President Biden has made it clear that U.S. troops are not going to be fighting in Ukraine. There’s a good reason for that because the United States getting involved in combat in Ukraine right now or over the skies of Ukraine right now leads to war with Russia. There’s very little that you can see that would make sense for this war to be escalated between two nuclear powers.”

When asked what the U.S. would do if Poland is attacked, Kirby said, “We take our Article Five commitment very seriously, and the vice president was was pretty firm about that on a recent visit. So has been Secretary Austin. An armed attack against one is considered an armed attack against all. That is why, Martha, we continue to flow and to move and to reposition forces and capabilities along NATO’s eastern flank to make sure that we can defend every inch of NATO territory if we need to.”

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