Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that Kiev is asking for direct negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to the Ukrainian side, it is Putin who "approves the final decisions."
"Our president is not afraid of anything, including a direct meeting with Putin. If Putin is not afraid either, let him come to the meeting, let them sit down and talk," Kuleba concluded.
Earlier, Zelensky offered Putin to sit down at the negotiating table in Russian.
Zelensky also said that he did not understand Moscow's demands to Kiev.
On February 24, Vladimir Putin said that he decided to conduct a military special operation to protect Donbass in response to a request for help from the heads of the LNR and DNR.
Ukraine severed diplomatic relations with Russia. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on general mobilization.
Russia warned about the consequences of introducing a no-fly zone over Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin said that NATO's imposition of a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be viewed by Moscow as "participation in an armed conflict". Earlier NATO refused to close the airspace over the country. Official Kiev made such a request to the alliance. "Gazeta.Ru" has investigated why Ukraine asked to close the sky and what this refusal means.
Russia will consider any country's decision to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine as participation in an armed conflict, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"Now we hear that it is necessary to make a no-fly zone over the territory of Ukraine. It is impossible to do this on the territory of Ukraine itself, it is possible only from the territory of some neighboring states. But any movement in this direction will be considered by us as participation in an armed conflict of a country from whose territory threats will be posed to our servicemen," Putin said at a meeting with women of flight personnel of Russian airlines.
The day before, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky called NATO's refusal to close the skies over the country "conscious." He posted a video of the corresponding statement on his Instagram on March 5.
"The NATO summit took place. A weak summit, confused. A summit that shows that not everyone sees the fight for freedom as the most important goal for Europe. In that NATO can protect someone, including the countries of the alliance themselves. I don't know who you can protect and whether you can protect your own alliance countries. You will not be able to buy off from us with liters of fuel for liters of our blood spilled for our common Europe, common freedom, common future," Zelensky noted.
For his part, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the Ukrainian authorities were disappointed with the leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance.
"Ukrainians need to see clearly and honestly that NATO is not really what Ukrainians imagined it to be, at least for now. We need to be honest - Ukrainians today are disappointed in NATO. You can say a thousand times, as the NATO people do, that they will fight desperately for every inch of their land and that they are strengthening the eastern flank of NATO, but when they disapprove of some practical solutions, Russia sees that these are all words. And it understands that NATO feels fear," Kuleba added.
Earlier, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said that Russia had established "full dominance" over Ukraine's airspace.
Kiev believed that the decision to close the airspace by NATO would block the possibility of using Russian military aviation. This would have required the deployment of NATO air defense assets in Ukraine, as they would not work effectively from neighboring Poland and Romania, as well as the use of Alliance fighter aircraft in the skies of Ukraine.
Brussels rejected such a decision, and Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said that "the creation of a no-fly zone over Ukraine threatens a U.S. military conflict with Russia."
"President Vladimir Zelensky requested a no-fly zone over Ukraine from NATO for a number of reasons, among them the almost complete absence of its own air defense and air force assets. It is important to note that Ukraine's once-powerful air defenses, which were second only to Russia in Europe in 1991, had fallen into disrepair before February 24, 2022. Many of them have been sold and the combat readiness of the remaining divisions of air defense systems S-300P, S-300V, Buk-M1 was doubtful because of the lack of modernization," Air Force Major General Valery Nechiporenko, a retired military pilot and sniper, told Gazeta.ru.
According to Nechiporenko, if the country loses control of its airspace, it is doomed to defeat, and "the only question is timing." "Modern warfare is not waged when there is no control over the skies. It is always a loss. Yugoslavia showed that, Iran showed that," said the general.
Reserve Colonel Vladimir Talanov, a military pilot, explained to Gazeta.Ru that the issue of a possible attempt to close Ukraine's airspace by NATO "represents a multiple of the stakes, because a positive solution to this issue will inevitably lead to a clash of NATO and Russian combat aviation."
"President Zelensky is absolutely right. NATO is scared. Closing the airspace on both sides is a conflict. Accordingly, any NATO aircraft somewhere over Lvov could be attacked by Russia.
Ukraine itself, which is left without combat aviation, has, by and large, nothing to lose. That is why it tried to lure foreign troops onto its territory under such a pretext, to confront them with Russia. Fortunately Brussels is not ready for such adventure,
Political scientist and military expert Valery Volkov believes that Europe and the U.S. are now most afraid of an escalation of the conflict and its escalation beyond Ukraine.
"Look at CNN and the BBC. There in every story and commentary there is a terrible fear of a possible Third World War. For the West, any scenario on Ukraine is acceptable and admissible. Except for one - a move to an open military confrontation with Russia. Sanctions can be pressured and threatened. A military conflict with Moscow is taboo in any form. That's why they turned Ukraine down on the sky. The Europeans and Americans value their lives very much," Volkov concluded.
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