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Outrightly rejecting to police a no-fly zone over Ukraine, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg on Friday warned that such a move could provoke widespread war in Europe with Russia as the Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for urgent help from NATO and European countries.
The remarks came during the extraordinary meeting of the NATO Foreign Ministers in Brussels on Friday. Foreign Ministers of Finland and Sweden and the European Union High Representative were also present in the meeting. Stoltenberg made clear that NATO would not impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine saying, "no-fly zone was mentioned during NATO meeting but allies agreed NATO should not have planes operating over Ukraine", quoted Sputnik. "If you don't (help us), I am afraid you (NATO) will have to share responsibility for the lives and suffering of the Ukrainian civilians who die because of ruthless Russian pilots dropping bombs on them," Dmytro Kuleba said in a video message to the meeting. Posting his video message to the meeting on Twitter, Kuleba again called for NATO to act before it's too late. "Act now before it's too late. Don't let Putin turn Ukraine into Syria. We are ready to fight. We will continue fighting. But we need partners to help us with concrete, resolute and swift actions, now," Kuleba tweeted. "We have made it clear that we are not going to move into Ukraine neither on the ground nor in the Ukrainian airspace, and of course, the only way to implement a no-fly zone is to send NATO fighter planes into the Ukrainian airspace and then impose this no-fly zone by shooting down Russian planes. Our assessment is that we understand the desperation but we believe that if we do that we end up with something that it could end in a full-fledged war in Europe involving many more countries causing much more human suffering," Stoltenberg explained. NATO Secretary-General made clear that NATO has no plans to enter into the conflict in Ukraine. He said, "We are not part of this conflict", adding that NATO has "a responsibility to ensure it does not escalate and spread beyond Ukraine. That would be even more devastating and dangerous." In addition to the thousands more troops that Allies have already sent to the eastern part of the Alliance, NATO is deploying its Response Force for the first time, it has over 130 jets at high alert and over 200 ships from the High North to the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his trip in Brussels where he participated in the NATO Foreign Ministerial. Blinken will also meet with EU counterparts, participate in a G7 Ministerial Meeting, and hold additional meetings with partners to discuss the global response to Russia's invasion, including Allies and partners continued coordination on imposing massive consequences and severe economic costs on Russia. (ANI)
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