What is a no-fly zone, and why won’t the U.S. enforce one over Ukraine?

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began just over a month ago, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made numerous requests for NATO and its allies to impose an air exclusion zone on the country. In a passionate Speech at a joint session of the US CongressZelenskyy said it was vital to “protect” the sky over his country to stop Russia’s relentless airstrikes and artillery fire.

“Is it too much to ask, to create a no-fly zone over Ukraine to save people?” he asked.

For the United States and its NATO allies, so far the request has been too much. Below is a no-fly zone and why there is no one in Ukraine.

What is an air exclusion zone?

An air exclusion zone is essentially a predetermined section of the airspace in which military forces revoke access to all other aircraft. Enacting one means that the country or countries that impose it assume the responsibility of constantly monitoring the designated airspace to detect violations and of suppressing or destroying any aircraft that violates its boundaries.

“What it would mean is that US and NATO pilots would be in the air over Ukraine, patrolling the sky with orders to chase or shoot down any Russian aircraft entering Ukraine,” the national security correspondent said. CBS News, David Martin. told CBS Boston about the implications of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

This “would create a situation in which direct combat between American and Russian pilots was a probability,” Martin added.

Why is there no air exclusion zone over Ukraine?

It is this different possibility of direct combat between nuclear-armed nations — Russia and the United States — that has prevented both President Biden and his allies from refusing to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

The NATO alliance is made up of 30 member nations, but the United States is generally seen as the leading state and is the main contributor both militarily and financially. The other members have maintained the position of the Biden administration, with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg saying that a no-fly zone over Ukraine “could end a full-blown war in Europe.” that would involve many more countries and cause much more human suffering. So that is it. ” that is why we are making this painful decision. “

He bases this critical assessment on Article 5 of the NATO Charter, which states that an attack on any member nation will be considered an attack on all, forcing all member nations to respond in defense. Thus, for example, if a US warplane were shot down over Ukraine by enforcing an air exclusion zone, it would be taken as an act of war against all 30 NATO members.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made it clear that he would see any third-party statement from an air exclusion zone over Ukraine as a direct involvement in the war.

“We will see them as participants in the military conflict, and it doesn’t matter which members they are,” Putin said during a meeting with Russian women pilots in early March.

Despite repeated requests from Ukrainian officials, it has not been clear how much an air exclusion zone could do to stop Russia’s devastating attacks on Ukrainian cities, which, as Martin pointed out, have been going on since far from “artillery and rockets and planes that are firing long-range missiles, planes that never take off from Russian airspace.”

When have air exclusion zones been used before?

According to the Congressional Research Service, the United States has previously participated in four declared air exclusion zones. Includes Operation Deny Flight over Bosnia and Herzegovina from 1993 to 1995; Operation Northern Watch in Iraq from 1991 to 2002; Operation Southern Watch, also on Iraq from 1992 to 2003; and Operation White Odyssey on Libya in 2011.

Historically, no-fly zones have been implemented to protect civilians, but they come at a cost.

The United States imposed the two no-fly zones over Iraq, along with the United Kingdom and France, after the Gulf War. The United States has said it is forced to protect the Kurdish minority in northern Iraq and Shiite Muslims in southern Iraq. During that time, between the two operations, it cost the U.S. an average of $ 1.3 billion a year in current dollars, from 1996 to 2001, according to the Center for Strategic Assessments and Budgets.

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• Ukraine
• Russia