Ukraine's Foreign Minister offers partners alternative to shooting down Russian missiles over Ukraine

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has discussed Kyiv's call to partners to shoot down Russian missiles from their land, noting that if they do not want to do so, there is another option.

Source: Kuleba said this at a briefing with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock in Kyiv, as reported by European Pravda 

Details: Kuleba said Ukraine is asking partners to intercept Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory.

Quote: "There is no legal, security, or moral reason why our partners cannot shoot down Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory from their own country. Those who argue that such actions would constitute an escalation act in a manipulative style," Kuleba said.

"We've heard numerous arguments about the importance of avoiding escalation, yet the Russian Federation has been the sole side causing escalation for the past two years. Therefore, firstly, we actually encourage partners to examine the chances of Russian missiles... being intercepted from the territory of our partner countries," Kuleba added.

As he noted, if the partners refuse to shoot down Russian missiles, then there is another option.

"If you don't want to do anything, simply provide all of the required resources. We will place them on Ukrainian territory and intercept the missiles ourselves. These are air defence systems, which include combat aircraft with the appropriate technical capabilities.

And taking a stance in which we (European partners – ed.) will not transfer air defence and will not support the shooting down of Russian missiles from our soil over the territory of Ukraine, is to appease the aggressor," the minister concluded.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that assistance from the North Atlantic Alliance in shooting down Russian missiles over the territory of Ukraine would help compensate for Kyiv's deficit in air defence systems and would not drag NATO in the war.

Earlier, Zelenskyy said he did not understand why Western NATO allies downed Iranian missiles and drones flying towards Israel, but were afraid to do the same in Ukraine, fearing involving the Alliance in a war with Russia.

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