A no-fly zone would give Russia ‘opportunity’ to attack US, Europe, says Ernst

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), the first female combat veteran elected to the Senate, said on Sunday that if NATO sets up a no-fly zone over Ukraine, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested, then Russia will have the “opportunity” to attack the U.S. or Europe.

“Once we engage with Russians directly, that does involve all of our NATO partners as well. This gives Russia the opportunity then to attack not only the United States but also others in Europe, and it’s a very tenuous situation,” Ernst said while appearing on “Fox News Sunday.”

Ernst praised Zelensky for making requests of the international community in the midst of Russia’s invasion of his country, saying it was what she should do as a leader. However, she said that the U.S. directly engaging with Russia “would be World War III.”

“What we can do is provide all the defensive mechanisms for President Zelensky and his armed services to provide their own protected airspace,” said Ernst. “And that starts, of course, with providing air platforms to President Zelensky, making sure that those pilots are able to protect their own airspace.”

Fox News Channel chief legal correspondent and “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream noted that Ernst had recently written about the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, a 1994 agreement that saw Ukraine give up its nuclear capabilities in exchange for security assurances from numerous countries, including the U.S., the United Kingdom and Russia.

Ernst, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that the agreement was “no more than pieces of paper” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Though Russia has violated the agreement, Ernst said the U.S. still needed to abide by it.

“These agreements, they need to mean something. But to Vladimir Putin, again, they’re just pieces of paper,” she said.

Updated at 12:03 p.m.