Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged countries uncomfortable with his proposal to establish a no-fly zone over his country – effectively requiring foreign countries to shoot down Russian planes – to consider, instead, offering Ukraine more weapons.
The suggestion is a dramatic change in tone from Zelensky’s remarks on Saturday, in which he told NATO countries that Ukrainian civilians will “die because of you” and called them “weak” for rejecting the responsibility of implementing a no-fly zone.
Ukraine has been engaged in war with Russia since the latter illegally occupied its Crimean peninsula in 2014. In late February, however, Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced he would escalate the conflict to a full-scale military assault on Ukraine in an attempt to remove Zelensky’s “Nazi” government. Zelensky has effusively rejected accusations of Nazism, citing, among other overt evidence, that he is one of the world’s only Jewish heads of state.
The Russian military is significantly larger and believed to be better equipped than Ukraine. In response to this widely accepted mismatch in strength, Zelensky has taken dramatic measures, including the mass distribution of firearms to thousands of civilians in urban areas and the establishment of a wing of the armed forces to process foreigners seeking to come to Ukraine and fight Russia. Zelensky also announced that convicted criminals with military experience would be freed and sent to the “hottest” areas of conflict in the country.
“How many more deaths and losses are needed to close the skies over Ukraine? How do civilians in Kharkiv or Mykolaiv differ from those in Hamburg or Vienna?” Zelensky asked Monday, according to the Ukrainian government news site Ukrinform. “We are waiting for a decision on closing the skies or providing the forces you have, or you can send to us combat aircraft and air defense systems, which will give us the strength we need.”
“This is the help that the world must provide not just to Ukraine but also to themselves to prove that humanity will win,” Zelensky asserted.
The Ukrainian president also requested harsher sanctions on the Russian economy from the international community.
“If the invasion continues and Russia does not abandon its plans against Ukraine, then a new sanctions package is needed,” Zelensky suggested. “New sanctions, new sanctions steps against the war and for the sake of peace. A boycott of Russian exports. In particular, the refusal of oil and oil products from Russia.”
Zelensky also claimed the Russian military was “tired and demoralized” and would soon lose.
Vadim Savitskiy/Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File
A no-fly zone implementation would mean that those declaring it would ban aircraft from the skies over Ukraine. To enforce it, those parties would have to shoot down violators, likely resulting in the NATO parties Zelensky has requested a no-fly zone from shooting down Russian planes and directly engaging in military conflict with Russia. As part of the NATO pact, an attack on any one NATO country requires all 30 countries to respond as if it were attacked, as well.
The proposal has received widespread rejection, including from NATO.
“We are not part of this conflict,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg insisted this weekend, explaining why it had rejected the no-fly zone request. “We have a responsibility as NATO allies to prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine because that would be even more dangerous, more devastating and would cause even more human suffering.”
“You know, look, a no-fly zone has become a catchphrase. I’m not sure people know what that means,” American Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who attended a virtual meeting with Zelensky this weekend, told ABC News on Sunday. “That means flying 24 hours a day the willingness to engage Russian airplanes in the sky. That means you can’t put those up there unless you’re willing to knock out the anti-aircraft systems the Russians have deployed in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. A no-fly zone means World War III.”
Zelensky initially responded to the rejection of a no-fly zone by declaring it the product of NATO “weakness” and blaming NATO for civilian deaths.
“We believe that NATO countries themselves have created a narrative that the closure of the sky over Ukraine would provoke Russia’s direct aggression against NATO. This is self-hypnosis. Of those who are weak, underconfident,” Zelensky asserted. “All the people who will die starting from this day will also die because of you. Because of your weakness. Because of your disunity.”
Zelensky did not mention offering Ukraine weapons as an alternative to the no-fly zone on Saturday.
The potential of allies sending Ukraine combat aircraft remains highly in question. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed in remarks Sunday that America was “actively looking” at Poland providing fighter jets to Ukraine, but Poland itself has entirely dismissed the possibility.
“Poland won’t send its fighter jets to Ukraine [or] allow [Ukrainian pilots] to use [Polish] airports,” the Chancellery of Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki asserted in a statement on Twitter in response to reports about the potential development.
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