UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson has been confronted by a Ukrainian journalist's emotional demand that Britain and its Nato allies enforce a no-fly zone to protect citizens from Russia’s bombs.
Mr Johnson was speaking at a press conference at the British embassy in Warsaw on Tuesday where he demanded an end to the conflict in Ukraine, calling it a “colossal mistake” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Daria Kaleniuk, executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre civil society organisation, told the prime minister that she was from Kiev but had crossed the border in recent days.
Ms Kaleniuk became visibly upset as she described the “deep fear” her compatriots have of Russian missiles which are killing women and children across the country.
She also said Nato's reluctance to set up a no-fly zone was misguided because a Third World War “had already started.”
“Ukrainian women and Ukrainian children are in deep fear because of bombs and missiles which are going from the sky”, she told the prime minister. “Ukrainian people are desperately asking for the rights to protect our sky, we are asking for a no-fly zone".
“Nato is not willing to defend because Nato is afraid of World War Three but it’s already started and it’s Ukrainian children who are there taking the hit.
“You are talking about more sanctions prime minister but [Russian oligarch] Roman Abramovich is not sanctioned, he’s in London, his children are not in the bombardments, his children are there in London.”
Mr Johnson said he welcomed her passionate question and was “glad” she had made it to Poland, saying he was “acutely conscious that there is not enough we can do as the UK Government to help in the way that you want”.
Mr Johnson was also asked how he felt as a father when he saw the images of dying Ukrainian children.
Mr Johnson replied: “I think I felt what everybody in the world felt looking at that, that this is absolutely senseless.
“I think Vladimir Putin is a father himself, and no one can possibly understand how he has unleashed this conflict which seems to everybody to be so futile.
“Everybody can see that the Ukrainians are resisting.”
The prime minister said the imposition of a no-fly zone could result in direct conflict with Russian fighter jets, adding that the consequences of such a move “would be truly very, very difficult to control.”
Speaking after she made her plea, Ms Kaleniuk told reporters: “My message is that the suffering of people in Ukraine is unbelievable now.”
“My call to the West is protect our sky,” she said.
She said Ukrainians were “taking guns with zero protection” to “fight the evil” of Russian troops.
Ukraine crisis latest - in pictures
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A monitor displays a projectile striking the regional state administration building in Kharkiv, as the Russian invasion continues. Reuters -
People help a wounded woman in the aftermath of Russian shelling in Kharkiv. EPA -
Ukrainian emergency service personnel carry the body of a victim following shelling in Kharkiv. AP -
Students who fled the conflict rest in a refugee camp in Voluntari, Romania. AP -
Members of an Ukrainian civil defence unit pass new assault rifles to the opposite side of a blown-up bridge on Kiev’s northern front. AFP -
Civilians cross a river on Kiev's northern front. AFP -
A woman takes photos of a destroyed accommodation building near a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP -
The city hall of Kharkiv, damaged by Russian shelling. AFP -
Debris litters the square outside the damaged Kharkiv city hall. AFP -
A Ukrainian woman sleeps on the floor of the railway station in Zahonyi close to the Hungary/Ukraine border. AFP -
A medical worker attends to wounded man at a hospital in Brovary, outside Kiev. AP -
Refugees from Ukraine in a tent at the Medyka border crossing, Poland. AP -
Debris outside the regional administration building, which city officials said was hit by a missile, in Kharkiv. Reuters -
A student evacuated from Ukraine is embraced by her family after arriving at Tunis-Carthage International Airport in Tunisia. AFP -
Rescuers in a building damaged by a missile in central Kharkiv. Reuters -
An ambulance is visible through the damaged window of a vehicle hit by bullets in Kiev, Ukraine. Reuters -
Territorial defence members prepare to head out on patrol in Kiev. EPA -
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech on screen during the opening of the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. AP -
A policeman detains a young demonstrator during a protest against Russia's attack on Ukraine in St Petersburg, Russia. AP -
Local residents in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, prepare Molotov cocktails. Reuters -
Residents clean a bomb shelter under an out-of-service cinema in central Zhytomyr. Reuters -
Ukrainian volunteers tear cloth into strips to make camouflage nets in Lviv, western Ukraine. AP -
Part of the military convoy north-west of Invankiv, Ukraine. AP -
Mark Goncharuk, a young boy from Kiev, leaves his father behind as he travels with the rest of his family towards the border. Reuters -
People hold an anti-war protest outside the Russian Embassy in Mexico City, Mexico. Reuters -
A crater caused by shelling on the outskirts of Kiev. AFP -
People queue outside a grocery store in the Ukrainian capital. EPA -
Ukrainian soldiers stand at Maidan Nezalezhnosti, or Independence Square, in Kiev. EPA -
Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, second left, and Davyd Arakhamia, faction leader of the Servant of the People party in the Ukrainian Parliament, third right, attend the peace talks in the Gomel region of Belarus. AP -
People who have fled the Russian invasion in Ukraine, clamour to board a bus bound for a refugee centre established in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Hanna Pavlovna Lukasz, from Mirhord, Ukraine, said her sons, aged 12 and 8, and her 66-year-old mother had been waiting on the Ukrainian side of the border crossing with Medyka, Poland, for four days. AP -
A volunteer from Kiev prepares a rear post with trenches in the city. AFP -
A child being treated for cancer rests in the bomb shelter of the oncology ward at a hospital in Kiev. Getty -
Police officers check occupants of a suspicious car in Kiev, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues. Reuters -
A woman from Ukraine uses a phone to listen to a speech by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a refugee shelter in Beregsurany, Hungary. Reuters -
Shelves empty of bread after a curfew was lifted as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Kiev. Reuters -
Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov, left, and President Zelenskyy. AFP -
Snow-covered shoes donated for those fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine at the border crossing in Medyka, Poland. Reuters -
People who have fled Ukraine wait for a bus to transport them away from the border crossing in Medyka. Reuters -
Norwegian soldiers of the Nato-enhanced forward presence battalion pose at a military plane as they arrive at an airport in Kaunas, Lithuania. AP -
A person fleeing Ukraine sits during snowfall at a temporary camp in Przemysl, Poland. Reuters -
Footage reportedly of Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road before a drone strike near Malyn, Ukraine. Reuters -
An explosion after what are said to be Russian Buk missile system vehicles on a road are struck by a drone. Reuters -
The monument to Russian troops from the Second World War, after the figures’ hands were painted red, at the Red Army memorial in Sofia, Bulgaria. EPA -
The Peace Tower on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada, is lit up with the colours of Ukraine’s national flag in a show of support. AP -
Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the construction site of the National Space Agency on the premises of the Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Centre, in Moscow. EPA -
A man looks out from a train, at the railway station in Lviv, Ukraine. The UN has estimated the conflict could produce as many as four million refugees. AP -
A Ukrainian boy waits for his mother after passing the border crossing point in Siret, northern Romania. EPA -
Russian policemen detain a demonstrator in St Petersburg, during a protest against the country's military actions in Ukraine. EPA -
Ukrainian soldiers at a check point in the city of Zhytomyr. Reuters -
Residents prepare petrol bombs to defend the city, in Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Reuters -
A pro-Russian fighter sits inside a tank in the separatist self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic, in the Luhansk region, Ukraine. Reuters -
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, speaks to Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu, second left, and Head of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and First Deputy Defence Minister Valery Gerasimov, left, during their meeting in Moscow. AP -
Ukrainians and supporters gather during a demonstration in front of the Greek Parliament in Athens against the Russian military's operation in Ukraine. AFP -
Ukrainian Territorial Defence fighters test an automatic grenade launcher taken from a destroyed Russian infantry mobility vehicla after a battle in Kharkiv. AFP
