No-fly zone over Ukraine would need Russia’s buy-in, Canada’s UN ambassador says
Global News
Bob Rae said a no-fly zone "is obviously a wonderful thing if it happens, but it requires a degree of consensus that simply doesn't exist in this situation."
Canada’s ambassador to the United Nations says a no-fly zone to protect Ukrainians from Russian aerial bombardment would need a buy-in from the Russians themselves to have any meaningful effect.
Bob Rae said a no-fly zone “is obviously a wonderful thing if it happens, but it requires a degree of consensus that simply doesn’t exist in this situation.”
Rae was speaking in an interview from New York earlier this week as calls intensified for NATO to close the skies above Ukraine to Russian war planes and helicopters.
On Wednesday, the Russian aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities continued, killing scores of civilians and forcing an estimated 870,000 people to flood into other European countries as refugees. The carnage continued one day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued the latest of many pleas for a no-fly zone, this time in a television interview with NBC from what looked like a secure bunker somewhere in Kyiv.
“As far as a no-fly zone is concerned it would have helped a lot. This is not about dragging NATO countries into war. The truth is everyone has long since been dragged into war and definitely not by Ukraine, but by Russia — a large-scale war is going on,” Zelenskyy said in subtitled Ukrainian, clad in a green T-shirt and showing a few days of beard growth.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainians were ready to fight, but they could not fight alone. He said “that is why a no-fly zone to close the sky” is necessary.
The United States, Britain and Canada have ruled out a no-fly zone as too provocative because it would essentially lead to an all-out air war between NATO forces and Russia. Defence Minister Anita Anand said Tuesday that “putting in place a no-fly zone would be a severe escalation on the part of NATO and it is not on the table at the current time.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also raised the stakes by saying his military’s nuclear arsenal is now on alert.