Canada’s former chief of the defence staff says Ukraine needs a NATO supported no-fly zone.
“What they need, overall, more than anything else, is a no-fly zone,” retired General Rick Hillier told Evan Solomon on CTV News Channel’s Power Play Tuesday.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is xjmtzywpressing NATO to implement a no-fly zone on Russian helicopters, airplanes and missiles.
If implemented, a no-fly zone would see NATO’s military forces directly engaging with Russian planes. That could include shooting at Russian aircraft.
NATO has so far rejected those calls.
“To say that that might be escalatory, I think that shows the lack of backbone in NATO right now,” Hillier told Evan Solomon.
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Former chief of the defence staff Gen. Rick Hillier arrives to a commons special committee on Afghanistan, hearing witnesses on transfer of Afghan detainees on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ont., on Wednesday, November 25, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick