Russia will exploit West's partial Sky Shield to divide Ukraine — journalist

Journalist Vitaly Portnikov said this on Espreso TV.

He was answering a question about where the Europeans would start shooting down drones.

"You know, there are different options here. And each of these options is difficult. The Europeans could start by shielding themselves from drones at our border. There is another option, which is also being worked on, that part of Ukraine's territory could also become a joint security zone. And you have seen those analytical materials that talked about what this should look like. Perhaps the western regions of Ukraine could be covered by such a joint security system. It is possible that we could be talking about a larger territory of Ukraine, all the way to Kyiv," the journalist said.

The publicist noted that, in any case, this does not include the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine.

"And, of course, if such a decision is made—that yes, European countries are ready to create a joint drone control system with Ukraine and shoot down Russian drones and missiles in Ukrainian airspace using their own air defense systems. At the same time, this would be the airspace of western, and possibly northern, Ukraine, but not eastern and southern. And, of course, Russian propaganda will definitely use this. And not only Russian propaganda. 'See, they don't need you at all. They have clearly divided Ukraine into theirs and others. And they don't need Kharkiv, Dnipro, or Odesa, relatively speaking, they only want to protect this part of Ukraine,'" Portnikov believes.

In his opinion, this is a very dangerous moment politically.

"We need to be discussing this right now. Because if we want a joint air defense zone for at least the western regions of Ukraine and the eastern voivodeships of Poland, if we are considering the possibility that such a joint air defense scheme will be introduced. Then we have to say an important thing: that this system must be worked out for the future, and that the air defense systems that are now in the western and central regions of Ukraine, our systems, must be moved to the east and south to protect that territory more effectively. That we currently lack sufficient air defense assets to effectively protect the entire territory of the country, and if at least part of our territory, preferably half, were protected by Western air defense systems, it would improve the defense of the south and east," he said.

The publicist added that this needs to be discussed today.

"That is the issue. Because tomorrow it may turn out that this decision will be used to split Ukraine, to split Ukrainian society, and will be used by Russia for a hybrid war against our country," Portnikov concluded.