Politics

Zelenksyy: Millions of Ukrainians could die without Western air support

London, Mar 9 (EFE).- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that millions of his countrymen could die if Western nations do not provide air support – or declare a no-fly zone – amid the ongoing Russian invasion and “close” the skies above Ukraine to Russian warplanes.

“In the future, it will be too late. Believe me, if this keeps going on in this way, you’ll see how (Russia) will end up closing the sky, but we will lose millions of people,” Zelenskyy said in an interview broadcast Wednesday by Britain’s Sky News.

“We alone cannot stop this. This will only happen if the world unites around Ukraine,” the president said, adding that the unity his country needs from other Western nations is coalescing “very slowly.”

“Yesterday, the world did nothing. I’m sorry, but it’s the truth,” said Zelenskyy. The NATO allies will have to “apologize” to the Ukrainians who have lost their children for “not having done this yesterday, a week ago,” he said.

Speaking about the Russian military’s bombardment and siege of the southeastern Black Sea coastal city of Mariupol, the Ukrainian leader accused Russia of treating the residents there like “animals” and blocking their access to food and water.

“If (the Western countries) are united against Nazism and against this terror, they must close (Ukrainian airspace). Don’t wait for me to ask for it so many times, millions of times. Close the sky,” he said.

When questioned about the possibility that the war will spread beyond Ukraine, Zelenskyy said, “World War III will begin and only then will they make an air exclusion zone, but it will be too late.”

EFE gx/ie/bp

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