Volodymyr Zelensky urges NATO to impose no-fly zone over Ukraine
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Kyiv: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday reiterated his demand that NATO impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine and warned that Russia could strike NATO territory.
"If you don't close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian rockets fall on your territory, on NATO territory," Zelensky said in a video address released shortly after midnight.
He spoke a day after thirty-five people were killed and more than 130 injured when Russian troops launched air strikes on a military training ground outside Ukraine's western city of Lviv, near the border with NATO member Poland.
Zelensky also added in the video message that he had warned NATO leaders last year that "without preventive sanctions, Russia would start a war and would use the Nord Stream 2 pipeline as a weapon". The Russian airstrike on the Ukrainian military base close to the Polish border killed 35 people and injured 134, according to reports.'
Regional governor Maksym Kozytskyy said that Russian planes fired around 30 rockets at the facility, adding that some were intercepted before they hit. "Russia has attacked the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security near Lviv. Foreign instructors work here. Information about the victims is being clarified," Ukraine's defence minister Oleksii Reznikov said.
The base served as a crucial hub for cooperation between Ukraine and the NATO countries supporting its defence. Previously, it has hosted NATO drills.
The strike came as Moscow warned on Saturday that convoys of Western military supplies for Ukraine would be considered legitimate targets.
The Russian defence ministry, meanwhile, said on Sunday that a missile strike killed "foreign mercenaries" and destroyed a significant number of foreign weapons.