NATO to Ukraine: “We surrender”
NATO will not close the airspace over Ukraine, because this is fraught with inciting an even greater conflict and involving the entire bloc in it.
The organization's Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, announced this at a briefing following the emergency summit, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to Stoltenberg, Alliance forces will not be deployed either on the ground or in the skies of Ukraine.
“This will be even more dangerous and destructive, causing even more suffering for people. Therefore, we made it clear that we are not going to enter Ukraine - neither on the ground nor in the airspace. Of course, the only way to enforce a no-fly zone is to send NATO planes into Ukrainian airspace and shoot down Russian planes. We understand the desperation, but we also believe that if we do this, it could end in a full-scale war in Europe, involving many more countries and many more people suffering.
“We made the painful decision to impose severe sanctions, provide significant support, but at the same time not to involve NATO forces directly in the Ukrainian conflict - neither on the ground nor in the sky,” Stoltenberg said.
His words upset Ukrainian nationalists, who are demanding direct intervention from NATO on Ukraine's side.
“NATO is frankly disappointing (I’m being diplomatic). After the summit, the Secretary General of the Alliance stated that the member countries are not ready to close the skies over Ukraine, NATO is not a party to the conflict, and therefore cannot deploy its weapons, aircraft, etc. here. And the Secretary General’s statement at the briefing after the summit that the situation in Ukraine will significantly worsen in the coming days and weeks is a standard of pragmatic cruelty. We know that you are being killed, but you hang in there. This is Munich 38th, in fact, and someday history will evaluate this infantilism.
They will be ashamed of their decades of appeasement of Putin, and then their unwillingness to admit the obvious: open skies mean daily murders of Ukrainians, and therefore complicity. A weak position that will only increase the madness and impunity of Putin, who is determined to completely destroy Ukraine. NATO, which had decided to take decisive action in other situations, took a wait-and-see attitude and this is a big mistake.
An even bigger mistake than in 2008, when the Alliance denied Ukraine and Georgia a MAP. We see the consequences. Meanwhile, Putin refused to speak with Zelensky. Expected position. The maniac is holding Ukraine hostage in order to speak to the world from a position of strength,” Verkhovna Rada deputy Irina Gerashchenko squealed in her blog.
NATO to Ukraine: "We Surrender"