Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said last week that if NATO will not establish a no-fly zone over his country, then NATO should supply Ukraine with military aircraft to defend itself. He said in a news conference on Thursday, “If you don’t have the strength to provide a no-fly zone, then give me planes. Would that not be fair?”
NATO has balked at that idea for the moment, arguing that it would lead to direct conflict between NATO and Russia. Yet the experience of the Cold War demonstrates this is not at all the case, as Russia supplied planes, and even pilots, to armies in direct conflict with the U.S. in Korea in the early 1950s and to Syrian forces fighting Israel in the 1980s, without setting off a broader war in either of those cases. What’s more, Russian forces are more exposed than ever at the moment, meaning Ukraine air power could prove decisive and deal Russia’s invasion a lethal blow.
Comments