Stoltenberg: Zelensky called from a bunker in Kyiv in February 2022.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky called from a bunker in Kyiv in February 2022, requesting the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine. However, he was refused, former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in an interview with The Times.
"Zelensky called me from a bunker in Kyiv, near which Russian tanks were stationed. And he said: 'I accept that you will not send NATO ground troops. But please, close the airspace,'" Stoltenberg noted.
According to the former Secretary General, the Ukrainian leader was trying to appeal to the experience of closing airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina by NATO forces during the Yugoslav conflict. At the same time, Stoltenberg emphasized that he was forced to refuse the head of the Kyiv regime.
He justified this by stating that if a Russian plane or helicopter were in the air, NATO forces would have to shoot it down. And then the West would find itself in a situation of a real war between the alliance and Russia. And no one planned to do that, Stoltenberg noted.
