Source: The Telegraph
Translation: Telegrafi.com
Russia's recent drone attacks on Poland not only show that Vladimir Putin is trying to see how far he can challenge NATO - and it seems he may go quite far - but also prove that he is willing to kill civilians in Poland just as he is doing in Ukraine.
Just as we were willing to shoot down Iranian drones and missiles aimed at civilian targets in Israel, so too must we protect the people of Ukraine, who are now experiencing their fourth year of unprovoked Russian violence. The way to do that is by shooting down Russian drones and missiles.
I was in Iraq in 1991, when the UK helped establish a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, which saved hundreds of thousands of Kurds and prevented their extermination by Saddam Hussein. In 2014, after one of my many trips searching for President Assad’s chemical weapons, I pleaded with the British government to establish a no-fly zone over northwestern Syria. We failed to do so, and the consequences were catastrophic: hundreds of thousands of civilians were massacred by Assad and Putin’s bombings over the next 10 years.
We now have an opportunity to create a no-fly zone in western Ukraine, potentially saving millions of lives, while the Russians continue to attack civilian targets with thousands of drones and missiles every week.
This time, it is at least encouraging to know that Western officials have confirmed that further options to protect civilians in Ukraine are being considered in detail - which means, in all likelihood, some kind of defensive “air shield.” Even without American air power, the UK and European NATO countries possess the fighter jets and air defense capabilities to do this - although it would undoubtedly be much more desirable with US involvement.
During my years of working on establishing a no-fly zone in northwest Syria, opponents of this idea vastly exaggerated the defensive and offensive power of Russian aviation, as if they had come straight from a Kremlin conference, suggesting that NATO's capabilities were insufficient to meet this challenge.
However, after the US air operation this year to attack Iran's weapons program, we now know that Western technology is very capable of the task. F-35s and other stealth aircraft carried out bombing missions unhindered by the Russian S-400 defense system, which was theoretically "invincible", while Iranian fighter jets - also Russian - did not take to the air at all.
Furthermore, I have learned from various sources that the S-300 air defense missiles were powerless even against detected aircraft. While I do not claim to be an expert in air power, I have consulted experts in the field and it seems clear that with the large number of F-35 aircraft that European NATO countries possess, supported by Western intelligence and electronic warfare capabilities, we can establish an effective air shield over civilian targets west of Kiev and potentially all the way to the border in the east.
This demonstration of European military air power could serve as a catalyst to force Putin to the negotiating table - something neither sanctions nor strong statements have achieved so far. He will understand that if we show our military strength, his forces may be forced to retreat to the East, rather than advance to the West.
Let's not end up on the wrong side of history again. I hope that at least the British Prime Minister will now understand that Putin exploits weakness, but respects strength.
Time is of the essence as Russian and Belarusian military forces are once again exercising near Kiev, just as they did in February 2022, shortly before Putin ordered the full invasion and so-called "special military operation."
Ukraine has proven its resolve. Now it is our turn for the “coalition of the willing” to finally show that the aggression and evil of Putin’s Russian tyranny will not spread further to the West; that the direct killing of civilians is never acceptable; that it is a war crime, for which I hope the tyrant will one day be held accountable. /Telegraph/
