A Ukrainian official on Sunday praised the Ukrainian army for its performance during the Russian invasion. “The reality is that we know how to fight. We are capable,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba told NBC’s Meet the Press. “I do not think it’s an exaggeration to say that Ukraine has proven to be one of the most powerful armies in the world, perhaps the second most powerful after the United States,” he said. “Not in terms of numbers, but in terms of combat experience and combat ability.” Ukrainians who spoke to Insider during the ongoing invasion have painted a bleak picture of the catastrophe. They described hearing “rockets” fired into the sky overnight, saying they had to hand out a single bulletproof vest as Russian soldiers tore down their cities and soldiers opened fire on homes and hospitals. The war forced millions of Ukrainians to flee their homeland. So far, more than 4.5 million Ukrainians have escaped since the beginning of the invasion, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In the first week alone, more than 1 million Ukrainians left. Kuleba said in an interview that if Ukraine were a member of NATO, “this war would not take place.” “But all we need are state-of-the-art weapons of any kind for us,” Kuleba said. “So we are proposing a fair deal to the West and to NATO: you are giving us what we need and we are fighting so that you do not have to step up the fight when Putin decides to try Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, an attack by one of the NATO countries. ». Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been calling for weeks for NATO and Western countries to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine in a bid to curb Russian missiles and airstrikes. But President Joe Biden has resisted calls for such a move for fear of entering a possible war with Russia, another nuclear power. Some lawmakers, such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, said the move could lead to World War III. In early March, Putin warned that any country attempting to impose a no-fly zone would be considered “participants in a military conflict and it does not matter who its members are.”
