Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky lashed NATO on Friday for ruling out a no-fly zone over his country saying the Western military alliance knew further Russian aggression was likely. Earlier Friday, NATO rejected Ukraine’s request to impose a no-fly zone to halt Russia’s bombing, but Western allies did warn President Vladimir Putin of fresh sanctions if he does not stop the war.
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“Knowing that new strikes and casualties are in-evitable, NATO deliberately decided not to close the sky over Ukraine,” Zelensky said in a video pub-lished by the presidency. “We believe that the NATO countries themselves have created a narrative that the closing of the skies over Ukraine would provoke direct Russian aggression against NATO.”
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg had said the alli-ance would not intervene in the conflict over fears of a direct clash with Moscow that could spiral into a wider conflict.—AFP
