“A Painful Moment.” Former NATO Secretary General recalls refusing Zelensky to close the skies over Ukraine

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg described a “painful moment” in February 2022 when he refused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to close the skies over Ukraine.

He stated this in his memoirs, the Times reports.

Jens Stoltenberg said he feared their conversation could be the presidentʼs last phone call.

“We were all afraid for the lives of President Zelensky and his family... He called me from a bunker in Kyiv when the Russian tanks were already nearby. And he said: ʼI accept that you are not sending NATO ground troops, although I do not agree with this. But please close the airspace. Do not let Russian planes, drones and helicopters fly and attack us,” he recalls.

“I know that NATO can do this because you have done it before,” Zelensky added at the time, referring to the precedent when NATO closed the airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina in the 1990s to prevent war crimes.

Stoltenberg said he refused Zelensky because if NATO closes Ukrainian airspace, the first thing the Alliance must do is destroy Russian air defense systems in Belarus and Russia, which will target NATO aircraft.

"And if there is a Russian plane or helicopter in the air, we will have to shoot it down, and then a full-scale war will begin between NATO and Russia. And we are not ready to do that," Stoltenberg explained.

He added that it was “extremely painful” for him to end that phone call, “knowing that his [Zelensky’s] life was in danger”.

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