TOLEDO, Ohio —
"I have a need. I need to protect our sky. I need your decision, your help," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a speech to Congress Wednesday morning.
Speaking over Zoom, the Ukrainian president presented lawmakers with a big request, asking the American government to create a no-fly zone over the skies of Ukraine to prevent further attacks from Russian forces.
Zelenskyy has pleaded for western help, including the no-fly zone since Russia invaded his country Feb. 24, sparking what is likely the biggest land war in Europe since World War II.
Many believe stopping Russia from achieving its goal of taking control of Ukraine and installing a sympathetic regime in Kyiv hinges on thwarting Russia's superior air power with a no-fly zone enforced by western allies, including the United States. But doing so would require direct intervention from U.S. military forces, something President Joe Biden has said he won't allow.
Veronika Kholodovych, a Ukrainian immigrant living in Ohio, hopes the American president will change his mind.
"I definitely have a more biased opinion, being from there," Kholodovych said. "Watching everything going on is so remarkably painful for us, that we do need the help."
While Kholodovych has been a U.S. citizen since 2009, she still has close friends in Kyiv who are volunteering to defend Ukraine against the invasion. She hopes the rest of the world will step in more directly.
"Ukraine has been defending itself, but our concern is that Europe and the rest of the world is at risk from this Russian aggression, and I think defending Ukraine is in everybody's best interest," she said.
However, BGSU Political Science Professor Marc Simon disagrees, and says U.S. support for Ukraine is a balancing act. Direct intervention against a nuclear power could have enormous implications, he said.
"The no-fly zone is impossible to implement without attacking Russian missile defenses, and attacking Russian pilots," he said. "That alone would give a pre-text for Russians to use nuclear missiles in Ukraine and elsewhere."
Simon says it will be in America's best interest to look for de-escalation strategies. However, they might be unfavorable in the eye of the public.
"The alternative is escalation into a potentially more broad global war with nuclear weapons, maybe it's better to take the off ramp," Simon said.
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