Rubin: NATO must find way to protect Ukraine’s skies

A NATO no-fly zone would require U.S. or European planes to destroy Russian air defenses and confront Russian planes. Understandably, the West does not want to go to war with Russia to defend a non-NATO member, Ukraine.

But there are other ideas for protecting Ukraine’s skies.

“Right now we are in a group think,” I was told by retired Air Force general and former NATO commander Philip Breedlove. “We need to consider other tools.”

He and former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker have proposed a humanitarian no-fly zone that could extend over western Ukraine, which Russia hasn’t yet heavily attacked and where hundreds of thousands of refugees are taking shelter. Perhaps it could be extended over Kyiv. It would be designed to protect civilians and permit the delivery of humanitarian aid and the safe exit of refugees.

“A traditional no-fly zone is an act of war, but we are thinking of different rules of engagement,” says Breedlove. “You tell the enemy, we won’t fire on you if you don’t fire on us as we escort people out.”

Of course, it is easy to imagine the objections to such an idea, starting with, “What if the Russians refuse?” Yet, the alternative is for NATO to sit by and watch Putin turn cities into death zones.

Instead, why not think creatively, and perhaps try to get the United Nations General Assembly to authorize a humanitarian air corridor? That would give an international green light to the project.

“There is a risk here, but there are no options that are zero risk,” Breedlove says. “There is already a risk of nuclear exchange. If the Ukrainians do too good a job on the ground, Putin may pop a battlefield nuclear weapon, just because he’s making no progress.”

Indeed, Putin is constantly playing the nuclear card, hinting at nuclear war and claiming sanctions mean the West is at war with Russia. Americans should remember that the United States has faced down the Russian nuclear weapons before, during the Berlin airlift and the Cuban missile crisis. Retired Adm. James Stavridis, also a former NATO commander, said: “It is critical to the Western order that Putin not be rewarded for his actions. We should be prudent, but demonstrate the U.S. and its allies are capable of dealing with his threats.”

Beyond a humanitarian no-fly zone, there are other ideas for protecting Ukraine’s air space.

The White House should be focused on how to send Ukraine ground-based air defense systems that are capable of hitting Russian planes and missiles at medium and high altitudes.

As fast as the West has awakened over the past two weeks, it must act even more swiftly to prevent Putin from wreaking destruction from the air that rivals what Hitler did to London. If Putin’s nuclear blackmail prevents us from saving Ukraine, who knows where he will threaten next?