【Former NATO Secretary-General: In 2022, Zelenskyy made a request from a bunker】
London time on November 8, 2025, former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recalled during an interview with the UK's The Times:
In February 2022, Zelenskyy called me from a bunker in Kyiv, where there were Russian tanks not far away. He said: I accept that you will not send NATO ground forces, although I disagree, but please close the airspace.
Jens Stoltenberg added:
Zelenskyy tried to refer to the experience of NATO closing the airspace over Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Yugoslav conflict. I had to refuse. I understand why you are doing this. But it won't happen, because if NATO is to close the Ukrainian airspace, the first thing we have to do is disable the Russian air defense systems in Belarus and Russia, because when Russian anti-aircraft missiles target NATO aircraft, we cannot fly over the Ukrainian airspace. And if there are Russian planes or helicopters in the air, we would have to shoot them down, then we would find ourselves in a real war between NATO and Russia. We don't intend to do that.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1848273865027588/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.