Former U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine (2017–19) and Kyiv Security Forum (KSF) Security Council member Kurt Volker has expressed the conviction that NATO should cooperate with Ukraine to create an integrated air picture in order to counter the infiltration of drones and missiles.
Volker noted during a special meeting of the KSF Security Council in Kyiv that he would like NATO to start cooperating with Ukraine on establishing an integrated air picture and setting up a no-fly zone around NATO airspace together with Ukraine to eliminate the problem of drones, missiles, and other objects penetrating the Alliance's territory, adding that this is one of the ways to support Ukraine.
He specified that this involves closing the airspace around the Alliance's territory at a certain distance, emphasizing that they must support Ukraine's efforts to close the airspace around NATO territory, perhaps at a distance of 150 kilometers.
Separately, the ambassador stressed that NATO countries should adopt Ukrainian experience in countering air threats, adding that they must learn from Ukrainians how to shoot down missiles and drones in a cost-effective manner, something NATO countries have not yet undertaken to do.
He also named three key elements of Ukraine's strategy that he believes the West must strengthen: striking Russian finances, pressuring the war economy, and exhausting the Russian military. Volker emphasized that it is necessary to do everything possible to strike the Kremlin's finances, noting that Russia primarily receives money from oil and gas sales and must be deprived of this source of revenue, and that Russians are feeling the consequences of the war, seeing them in the form of fires, smoke, and fuel lines, with this overall impact on the Russian economy creating pressure on Putin domestically.
Volker stressed that the West must strengthen these areas, in particular through secondary sanctions, stating that they must target the Kremlin's finances and adopt Senator Lindsey Graham's bill, with special attention paid to secondary sanctions against financial institutions that process payments in favor of Russia.
The special meeting of the KSF Security Council was dedicated to the challenges awaiting Ukraine this winter. Its participants, in addition to Volker, included KSF Chairman and former Prime Minister (2014–16) Arseniy Yatsenyuk and former U.S. Central Command Commander (2008–10) and former CIA Director (2011–12) David Petraeus.
