- Ukraine’s Defense Ministry released a video on Saturday showing the bombed Eiffel Tower.
- The video was intended as a message for NATO.
- “Just think if this were to happen to another European capital,” the video caption read.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense posted a surprising video on its Twitter on Saturday illustrating a military attack on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The 45-second video, intended as a message for NATO, shows the western city being bombed and urges NATO to “close the skies over Ukraine!”
“Just think if this were to happen to another European capital,” a caption read in the video.
—Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 12, 2022
The video opens with a woman posing in front of the Eiffel Tower. Seconds later, an explosion rocks the city. At one point, flames surround the Eiffel Tower and several planes fly overhead.
The camera pans from the Eiffel Tower to other French landmarks like the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. Large plumes of smoke engulf landmarks and air raid sirens sound in the distance.
“We will fight to the end,” read a caption attributed to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “Just give us a chance to live. Shut down the skies over Ukraine or give us fighter jets. If we go down, you go down.”
Zelenskyy has been calling on Western leaders for days to impose a no-fly zone. Last week, he reiterated that urge by describing in a video how eight Russian missiles “completely destroyed” an airport in Vinnytsia.
Earlier this week he chastised NATO for deliberating over the decision to implement a no-fly zone, saying inaction had effectively given Russia a ‘green light’ to continue striking the EU. Ukraine.
“All the people who die from this day forward will also die because of you,” Zelensky said. “Because of your weakness. Because of your disunity.”
NATO said the establishment of a no-fly zone would escalate the conflict between Ukraine and Russia into “a full-fledged war in Europe, involving many other countries and causing much more human suffering. “.
Last week Russian President Vladimir Putin noted any country that tries to impose a no-fly zone will be considered “participating in a military conflict, and it doesn’t matter what organizations they are members of.”
“It is impossible to do this, on the territory of Ukraine itself, it is possible only from the territory of some neighboring states. But any movement in this direction will be considered by us as participation in an armed conflict “, Putin added.
