Russia has been given ample opportunities to seek peace. Instead, Putin clearly prefers to slaughter Ukrainian civilians and continue his brutal war. It’s time for the free world to take action and close the sky over Ukraine.
At some point, the free world has to say “enough is enough” when it comes to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s indiscriminate slaughter of Ukrainians.
That point should have been reached a long time ago, but Western weakness, trepidation, and naive hopes that some mythical peaceful Putin was waiting to emerge have delayed action.
And that delay has cost lives.
Russia recently launched one of its largest terror bombings against Ukraine, a massive attack on the capital Kyiv that seemed directed at killing as many civilians as possible:
Here’s what Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a social media post:
“I receive regular reports from Minister of Internal Affairs Klymenko and our military commanders on the aftermath of Russia’s massive strike. More than 440 drones and 32 missiles were used. Kyiv has faced one of the most horrific attacks. Also, overnight, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Zhytomyr, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv and Kyiv regions were attacked.
Right now in Kyiv, efforts are underway to rescue people from under the rubble of an ordinary residential building — it’s still unclear how many remain trapped. The Russians destroyed an entire section of the apartment block. In total, buildings in eight districts of Kyiv have been damaged. Response efforts are still ongoing after the strike on Odesa. Emergency workers are operating at all the sites of impact. All the affected are receiving the necessary assistance. 75 people have been reported injured. As of now, 15 people are confirmed dead. My condolences to their families and loved ones.
Such attacks are pure terrorism. And the whole world, the United States, and Europe must finally respond as a civilized society responds to terrorists.
Putin does this solely because he can afford to continue the war. He wants the war to go on. It is wrong when the powerful of this world turn a blind eye to it. We are in contact with all partners at every possible level to ensure an appropriate response. It is the terrorists who must feel the pain, not innocent peaceful people.”
Time to close the sky
Clearly, Russia has no intention of stopping the slaughter. Despite glacial progress on the battlefield (tiny amounts of territory gained at massive cost in lives and equipment), Russia continues to go all-in on continuing the war. Putin has transformed Russia into a total-war economy, with Russia’s military spending now higher than that of all of Europe combined when measured on a purchasing power parity (PPP) basis.
Given that Russia fully intends to turn its military production power against NATO countries if it defeats Ukraine, it is thus in our national interest to take action now to ensure Ukraine survives and Russia is forced to end the war.
And to do that, we must close the skies over Ukraine.
This can be done in three ways.
First, a coalition of willing nations (likely much of Europe + Canada) should take an active role in shooting down Russian drones and cruise missiles. They would not engage in direct combat against Russian aircraft – unless fired upon first – and would play a defensive role. This would be a way to send a clear message to Russia that the free world was not seeking war but would not stand by and watch Ukraine continue to be brutalized.
Second, the pace of aircraft donations should be accelerated. With countries like Canada and many European nations shifting towards newer fighter jet models, legacy models should be given to Ukraine as soon as possible. Fighter jets can also be ‘loaned’ to Ukraine, with the prospect that they would be returned when the conflict is over, as a way to rapidly supplement Ukrainian air capabilities. The coalition nations could pool financial and technical resources to fund upgrade kits for legacy jets to ensure a higher level of performance.
And third, the pace of air defence production and delivery should be ramped up. It is absurd that many free nations, including Canada, have not devoted significant resources to the production of air defences. Many air defence systems – particularly those used for shooting down Russian drones – are not that sophisticated, and thus could be mass-produced in Canada with a very reasonable investment in production lines. The fact that this has not yet happened in Canada and many peer nations indicates a level of complacency in the West that must come to an end. Canada and our allies should immediately invest in the production of air defence platforms and give a large portion of those platforms to Ukraine. The idea should be to scale up production to a level that ensures Ukraine is always becoming better defended. Coalition nations should also pool their money and purchase more Patriot systems from the United States to give to Ukraine, assuming the U.S. stays out of direct defensive efforts.
Now is the time for action. Now is the time for the free world to close the sky over Ukraine.
Spencer Fernando
Image – Twitter
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