“We won’t risk a Third world war for Ukraine,” the former NATO Secretary General revealed interesting details.

Former NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recounted in his memoirs how he was forced to refuse Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request to close the skies at the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In his memoirs, Jens Stoltenberg reported that Zelenskyy approached him with this request from a bunker in Kyiv. The Ukrainian president accepted NATO’s reluctance to send troops to Ukraine, but noted that the Alliance could close the skies, as it had already done so.

Stoltenberg called Zelenskyy’s refusal of this request “the most painful decision during a full-scale invasion.” He explained that such a step was rejected out of a desire to avoid a direct war with Russia and a global conflict.

The former Secretary General explained that to establish a no-fly zone, NATO would have to shoot down Russian aircraft. “And if a Russian plane or helicopter is in the air, we would have to shoot it down, and then we would find ourselves in a real state of war between NATO and Russia. And we are not prepared to do that,” Stoltenberg was quoted as saying.

The former Secretary General of the Alliance also added that to ensure NATO air flights, it would be necessary to destroy Russian air defense systems located in Belarus and Russia. Stoltenberg recalled US President Joe Biden’s position at the time that the Alliance would not risk World War III for the sake of Ukraine.

At the same time, the former NATO chief admits that Western military aid to Ukraine was “too little, too late.” He believes that providing sufficient and timely support to Kyiv could have forced President Putin to abandon his plans for a full-scale invasion.

As a reminder, on October 1, 2024, Jens Stoltenberg handed over the post of NATO Secretary General to Mark Rutte.

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