The recent Russian drone attacks on Poland not only demonstrate that Vladimir Putin is trying to see how far he can push Nato, which seems far, but also illustrates he is happy to kill civilians in Poland as well as in Ukraine.
As we were happy to shoot down Iranian drones and missiles aimed at civilian targets in Israel, so we must protect the people of Ukraine who are now suffering their fourth year of unprovoked Russian violence. And the way to do this is by shooting down Russian drones and missiles.
I was in Iraq in 1991 when the UK helped set up the no fly zone in north Iraq which saved 100,000s of Kurds and prevented their extermination by Saddam Hussein. I pleaded with the British government to set up a NFZ in north-west Syria in 2014 after one of my many trips hunting for president Assad’s chemical weapons. We failed to achieve this and subsequently 100,000s of civilians were murdered by Assad and Putin’s air strikes over the next 10 years.
We now have an opportunity to set up a NFZ in western Ukraine to save potentially millions of lives, as the Russians continue to attack civilian targets with thousands of drones and missiles every week.
This time at least, it is reassuring to know that western officials have confirmed that further options to protect civilians in Ukraine are being looked at in detail, which one assumes includes some sort of defensive “air shield”. Even without US air power, the UK and European Nato countries have the fighter jets and air defence capabilities to do this – this would, of course, be far more preferable with the US.
In my years of lobbying for a no fly zone for north-west Syria, the counter lobby “crowd” rather overhyped Russian air defence and fighter jet capabilities, as though straight out of a Kremlin briefing, suggesting Nato capabilities were not up to the task.
However, after the US air operation to attack the Iranian weapons programme this year, we know western technology is well up to this task. F35 and other stealth jets completed their bombing runs completely unmolested by the apparently “impenetrable” Russian S400 air defence system, and the Iranian fighter jets, also Russian, did not even get airborne.
Further, I understand from “various’ sources that the S300 air defence missiles were even impotent against non “stealth” jets. Though I would never confess to be an expert on air power, I have consulted those who are, and it seems clear that with the huge number of F35s that European Nato countries have, allied with western intelligence and electronic warfare assets, we could deploy an effective air shield over civilian targets west of Kyiv and potentially east to the border.
This demonstration of European military air power may well be the catalyst to get Putin around the negotiating table, which no amount of sanctions or hot air has hitherto achieved. He will understand that if we flex our military muscles, his forces could soon be heading east rather than west.
Let us not be caught on the wrong side of history again; I hope the Prime Minister at least now understands that Putin exploits weakness but respects strength.
Time is of the essence, with Russian and Belarusian military forces once again exercising near Kyiv, as they did in February 2022 just before Putin ordered the full-scale invasion and the start of his “special military operation”.
Ukraine has demonstrated its resolve in spades. Now it is our time, for the “coalition of the willing”, to at last show that the aggression and pure evil of Putin’s Russian tyranny will not prevail any further west; that directly killing civilians is never acceptable; that it is a war crime that I hope one day the tyrant will answer for.
The recent Russian drone attacks on Poland not only demonstrate that Vladimir Putin is trying to see how far he can push Nato, which seems far, but also illustrates he is happy to kill civilians in Poland as well as in Ukraine.
As we were happy to shoot down Iranian drones and missiles aimed at civilian targets in Israel, so we must protect the people of Ukraine who are now suffering their fourth year of unprovoked Russian violence. And the way to do this is by shooting down Russian drones and missiles.
I was in Iraq in 1991 when the UK helped set up the no fly zone in north Iraq which saved 100,000s of Kurds and prevented their extermination by Saddam Hussein. I pleaded with the British government to set up a NFZ in north-west Syria in 2014 after one of my many trips hunting for president Assad’s chemical weapons. We failed to achieve this and subsequently 100,000s of civilians were murdered by Assad and Putin’s air strikes over the next 10 years.
We now have an opportunity to set up a NFZ in western Ukraine to save potentially millions of lives, as the Russians continue to attack civilian targets with thousands of drones and missiles every week.
This time at least, it is reassuring to know that western officials have confirmed that further options to protect civilians in Ukraine are being looked at in detail, which one assumes includes some sort of defensive “air shield”. Even without US air power, the UK and European Nato countries have the fighter jets and air defence capabilities to do this – this would, of course, be far more preferable with the US.
In my years of lobbying for a no fly zone for north-west Syria, the counter lobby “crowd” rather overhyped Russian air defence and fighter jet capabilities, as though straight out of a Kremlin briefing, suggesting Nato capabilities were not up to the task.
However, after the US air operation to attack the Iranian weapons programme this year, we know western technology is well up to this task. F35 and other stealth jets completed their bombing runs completely unmolested by the apparently “impenetrable” Russian S400 air defence system, and the Iranian fighter jets, also Russian, did not even get airborne.
Further, I understand from “various’ sources that the S300 air defence missiles were even impotent against non “stealth” jets. Though I would never confess to be an expert on air power, I have consulted those who are, and it seems clear that with the huge number of F35s that European Nato countries have, allied with western intelligence and electronic warfare assets, we could deploy an effective air shield over civilian targets west of Kyiv and potentially east to the border.
This demonstration of European military air power may well be the catalyst to get Putin around the negotiating table, which no amount of sanctions or hot air has hitherto achieved. He will understand that if we flex our military muscles, his forces could soon be heading east rather than west.
Let us not be caught on the wrong side of history again; I hope the Prime Minister at least now understands that Putin exploits weakness but respects strength.
Time is of the essence, with Russian and Belarusian military forces once again exercising near Kyiv, as they did in February 2022 just before Putin ordered the full-scale invasion and the start of his “special military operation”.
Ukraine has demonstrated its resolve in spades. Now it is our time, for the “coalition of the willing”, to at last show that the aggression and pure evil of Putin’s Russian tyranny will not prevail any further west; that directly killing civilians is never acceptable; that it is a war crime that I hope one day the tyrant will answer for.