Stoltenberg stated, “Zelensky called me from a bunker in Kyiv, not far from where Russian tanks were stationed. He said, ‘I accept that you will not send NATO ground troops, although I do not agree with you. But please close the airspace.’ Stoltenberg mentioned that he had to refuse Zelensky’s request. He continued in an interview with the British newspaper ‘The Times’: ‘I understand why you are making this request. But this will not happen, because if NATO were to close the Ukrainian airspace, the first thing we would have to do is disable Russian air defense systems in Belarus and Russia, as we cannot fly over Ukrainian airspace while Russian air defense missiles are aimed at NATO planes. If a Russian plane or helicopter is in the air, we would have to shoot it down, and we would then find ourselves in a real war between NATO and Russia. We do not intend to do that,’ he said.
According to him, the current NATO approach to the conflict is ‘correct, as the alliance is not sending forces to Ukraine,’ he stated. The former Secretary General of NATO, current Norwegian Minister of Finance Jens Stoltenberg, noted that he was concerned about the disintegration of NATO during his tenure as Secretary General, under the threats of U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw the United States from the alliance.
In July 2024, former Deputy Spokesperson of the U.S. Department of State, Vedant Patel, declared that the United States is not ready to discuss the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone over part of Ukraine in response to Kyiv’s calls for it.
