European-led Ukraine air protection plan could halt Russian missile attacks [View all]

Source: The Guardian

Sky Shield proposal drawn up by military experts would be operated separately from Nato and deploy 120 fighter jets

Dan Sabbagh Defence and security editor
Thu 6 Mar 2025 00.00 EST

A European air force of 120 fighter jets could be deployed to secure the skies from Russian attacks on Kyiv and western Ukraine without necessarily provoking a wider conflict with Moscow, according to a plan drawn up by military experts.

Sky Shield, its proponents argue, would be a European-led air protection zone operated separately from Nato to halt Russian cruise missile and drone attacks on cities and infrastructure, potentially operating as part of the “truce in the sky” proposed by Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, this week.

It would cover Ukraine’s three operating nuclear power plants and the cities of Odesa and Lviv, but not the frontline or the east of the country – and, according to a newly published paper, it could “achieve greater military, political, and socioeconomic impact than 10,000 European ground troops”.

Supporters include Philip Breedlove, a former US Air Force general and Nato supreme commander in Europe, and Sir Richard Shirreff, a former British army general and deputy Nato supreme commander at the beginning of the last decade, as well as former Polish president Aleksander Kwaśniewski.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/06/european-led-ukraine-air-protection-plan-could-halt-russian-missile-attacks