Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed on Saturday that Russia would regard as co-belligerent any country attempting to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, a claim by Kiev that NATO has rejected, and asserted that the sanctions imposed on his country amounted to “a declaration of war”.
“We hear that it would be necessary to establish a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine. But it is impossible to do this from the territory of Ukraine, it is only possible to do it from the territory of countries neighbours,” Putin said during a meeting with Russian airline workers.
But any measure in this direction would be considered by Moscow “as participation in the armed conflict of any country” whose territory would be used to “create a threat to our military”, he added. Mr Putin also warned of a possible loss by Ukraine of its “statehood” if the Ukrainian authorities do not change their policy.
“The current (Ukrainian, editor’s note) authorities must understand that if they continue to do what they are doing, they are putting the future of Ukrainian statehood in question. And if that happens, they will be fully responsible for it,” said the master of the Kremlin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday strongly criticized NATO’s refusal to set up a no-fly zone in Ukraine to neutralize Russia’s vastly superior capabilities in the air.
Western countries refuse to accede to this request, which is complex to implement, on the grounds that it would entail a significant risk of direct conflict with Russia, whose soldiers have been intervening in Ukraine since February 24. But they imposed a series of heavy sanctions against Russia in retaliation for the Russian offensive in Ukraine.
“A lot of things that are happening right now (…) and that we are facing are ways of waging a fight against Russia. These sanctions that are being put in place are akin to a declaration of war” , said Vladimir Putin. “But thank God we haven’t come to that yet,” he added.