LVIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Nato today that its member states would soon be attacked by Russian forces after an airstrike hit a Ukrainian military base close to the Polish border.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the strategic southern port city of Mariupol, facing acute deprivation amid a prolonged siege, has topped 2,000, officials there said.
While western Ukraine has largely been spared so far, Russian air strikes overnight Saturday into yesterday carried the war deep into the west, killing 35 people and wounding 134 at a military base near Yavoriv, outside the city of Lviv – which is dangerously close to the frontier with EU and Nato member Poland.
“If you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory, on Nato territory, on the homes of Nato citizens,” Zelenskyy said in a video address released shortly after midnight, urging Nato to impose a no-fly zone over his country.
Washington and its EU allies have sent funds and military aid to Ukraine and imposed unprecedented economic sanctions on Russia.
Zelenskyy has continued to implore foreign counterparts to do more.
“Last year, I clearly warned Nato leaders that if there were no harsh preventive sanctions against the Russian Federation, it would go to war,” Zelenskyy said. “We were right.” – AFP, March 14, 2022
