In February 2022, Volodymyr Zelensky called me from a bunker in Kiev to request a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but was refused, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told the British newspaper The Times.
„He called me from a bunker in Kiev, near which Russian tanks were stationed. And he said: „I accept that you will not send NATO ground troops, although I do not agree. But please close the airspace,” Stoltenberg said.
According to him, Zelensky tried to refer to the experience of closing the airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina by NATO forces during the Yugoslav conflict.
Stoltenberg noted that he was forced to refuse Zelensky.
„I understand why you want this. But this will not happen, because if NATO is going to close Ukrainian airspace, the first thing we will have to do is disable Russian air defense systems in Belarus and Russia, because we cannot fly over Ukrainian airspace when Russian air defense missiles are aimed at NATO aircraft. And if a Russian plane or helicopter is in the air, we will have to shoot it down, and then we will find ourselves in a situation of real war between NATO and Russia. "And we don't intend to do that," said the former NATO Secretary General.