The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, assured this Saturday that a no-fly zone over Ukraine supported by the EU would mean “extending the conflict to a third world war.”

“When someone asks for a no-fly zone, that implies having the ability and the will to shoot down Russian planes that violate it. It would be extending the conflict to a Third World War and it is clear that we do not want to do it”, explained Borrell in an interview with El Periódico de Catalunya.

The head of European diplomacy explained that the Union is moving “at the limit” of its capabilities to help, without entering, of course, into “a situation of belligerence” that makes Brussels part of the conflict.

Borrell underlined the role of economic sanctions that, despite not having the ability to stop the war “overnight”, offer the possibility of “weakening the Russian economy”. These sanctions, as detailed by the High Representative of the EU, “are going to cost Russia dearly”.

On the other hand, Borrell sees no reason for Ukraine to renounce its possible accession to the European Union, despite the reluctance of several EU members to launch an ‘express’ procedure.

“No one can prevent Ukraine from being part of the European family because it is part of the European family. No one has to give permission. He wants to live in a system of civil liberties where people choose their governments and a market economy. It is what Putin does not like because it is to have part of the Slavic population living under a political system that offers more freedom, rights and prosperity”, assured the head of European diplomacy.

For his part, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Jens Stoltenberg, assured last week that the alliance will not have aircraft operating in Ukraine, thus ruling out establishing a no-fly zone in that country, something that the Ukrainian government had requested.

“The allies agreed that we should not have aircraft over Ukraine’s airspace, or NATO troops on Ukraine’s territory,” Stoltenberg said at the end of an emergency meeting of the transatlantic organization’s foreign ministers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has consistently called for a no-fly zone since the start of the Russian invasion more than a week ago, but NATO allies have resisted a move that could drag them into war with Russia. possession of a nuclear arsenal.