Russian prez Putin warns 3rd parties against creating Ukraine no-fly zone

Lviv (Ukraine), Mar 5: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday warned that Moscow would consider any third-party declaration of a no-fly zone over Ukraine as "participation in the armed conflict."

Addressing a meeting with female pilots, the Russian President said Russia would view "any move in this direction" as an intervention that "will pose a threat to our service members." "That very second, we will view them as participants of the military conflict, and it would not matter what members they are," the Russian president said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country, warning that "all the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you" as Russian forces were battering strategic locations in Ukraine. NATO has said a no-fly zone, which would bar all unauthorised aircraft from flying over Ukraine, could provoke widespread war in Europe with nuclear-armed Russia.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian president's office said civilian evacuations have halted in an area of the country where Russian defense officials had announced a cease-fire. Kyrylo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, said the evacuation effort was stopped because the city of Mariupol remained under fire on Saturday.

"The Russian side is not holding to the ceasefire and has continued firing on Mariupol itself and on its surrounding area," he said. "Talks with the Russian Federation are ongoing regarding setting up a ceasefire and ensuring a safe humanitarian corridor." The Russian Defense Ministry said earlier in a statement it had agreed on evacuation routes with Ukrainian forces for Mariupol, a strategic port in the southeast, and for the eastern city of Volnovakha. But a city official reported that shelling continued in his area on Saturday despite the deal, a sign of the fragility of efforts to stop fighting across the country.PTI