To limit Russian attacks on Kiev and other cities, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky implores the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to establish a no-fly zone over your country.
An exclusion zone implies the prohibition to fly over the airspace of a certain country or territory, either for the protection of strategic installations or for war contexts. It was applied, for example, as support for the military intervention in Libya in 2011, although in the 1990s it was used in Iraq or the Balkans.
Applying this measure requires an executing power, that is, a country or block that is capable of intercepting and even shooting down aircraft that skip the exclusion zone.
Military means are necessary to apply the veto, so in this case it would imply that NATO gets fully involved in a conflict in which Russia is on the other side. A Russia that has precisely urged the Atlantic Alliance to withdraw its hands from Eastern Europe, in particular from Ukraine.
Former NATO commander Philip Breedlove, who led US forces in Europe, makes it clear in a recent interview with Foreign Policy what declaring a no-fly zone is itself “an act of war”, to the extent that you have to enforce it. However, he is immediately in favor of taking the step, asking if “we are going to watch” how Putin devastates Ukraine.
The general fear is that the war will escalate even further, given that Moscow has not slowed down for now. Putin has put his nuclear forces on alert in response to international sanctions.
But for now, it is a red line for the Transatlantic Alliance, of which Ukraine is not a member.
“The only way to establish a no-fly zone is send NATO fighter-bombers into Ukrainian airspace and then shoot down Russian planes to enforce it,” explained its secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg. And that would be the guarantee of a “total war in Europe”, he stressed.
As the risk of a nuclear confrontation is feared, many experts think that the Americans and Europeans will not change their minds, as long as the conflict is limited to Ukraine or, at least, to non-NATO countries.
In Washington, a handful of Republican congressmen, such as Adam Kinzinger and Roger Wicker, believe, however, that allies will have to risk a no-fly zone.
For now, NATO has limited itself to reinforcing its presence in Eastern Europe and has already made it clear that it does not plan to send troops to Ukrainian territory.
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Source: Eluniverso
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