NATO rejected Ukraine's appeal for a no-fly zone but allowed the U.S. to send fighter jets to the embattled country, the State Secretary said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed on Sunday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO has given the "green light" to the U.S. to send fighter jets to the embattled Ukraine, which had been requesting for a no-fly zone over the country to help protect itself from aerial Russian attacks. NATO however, has shut down Ukraine's requests for a no-fly zone, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said would cause a much larger conflict.
"That gets a green-light. In fact, we're talking with our Polish friends right now about what we might be able to do to backfill their needs if in fact they choose to provide these fighter jets to the Ukrainians," U.S. State Secretary Blinken said during Sunday's "Face the Nation," CBS News reported.
"What can we do? How can we help to make sure that they get something to backfill the planes that they are handing over to the Ukrainians?" Blinken remarked.
Meanwhile, a White House spokesperson confirmed that the Biden administration is yet evaluating the ways they can send fighter jets to Poland if Poland decides to transfer plans to Ukraine. But there were more "questions" that came with the decision to send fighter jets to Poland, including how they would be transferred from Poland to Ukraine.
Ukraine's ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova told "Face the Nation" that she hopes their allies would hasten the delivery of a "steady supply of all the ammunition and anti-air, anti-tank and planes to be able to effectively defend our country," for which they are looking to their "American, especially, friends and allies" to provide.
But despite the sanctions imposed on Russian businesses, which effects have started to be felt with the Russian ruble declining and their stock market being shuttered for almost a week, Putin continues to ravage Ukraine, which has appealed to NATO to declare a no-fly zone over the country, Al Jazeera reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently criticized NATO's rejection of Ukraine's request for a no-fly zone over the country, which he said would allow Russia to continue to bomb his country. NATO's secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg made the announcement that they would not grant Ukraine's request for a no-fly zone over the country.
Stoltenberg argued that it was NATO's responsibility to "prevent this war from escalating beyond Ukraine because that would be even more dangerous, more devastating and would cause even more human suffering."
But Zelensky fired back at NATO, claiming that the alliance "gave the green light for further bombing of Ukrainian cities and villages, having refused to set up a no-fly zone," in an impassioned speech on Friday. The Ukrainian president added, "All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you, because of your weakness, because of your lack of unity."
The most that Western allies have done is to impose sanctions on Russia, with private companies also moving away from the Putin-led country, and send arms supplies to Ukraine. But this has not slowed down Putin's invasion of Ukraine. In fact, he even issued a warning to NATO, Breitbart reported.
On Saturday, Putin warned that there would be a bigger war if NATO issued a no-fly zone over Ukraine. He said that if the no-fly zone would be set up, all the nations would witness a "colossal and catastrophic consequences not only for Europe but also the whole world."
"Any movement in this direction will be considered by us as participation in an armed conflict by that country," Putin warned.
