Boris Johnson has rejected calls for Nato to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine, following an emotional appeal by a journalist from Kyiv.
Daria Kaleniuk held back tears as she told the prime minister the West was “afraid” to act.
“Ukrainian women and Ukrainian children are in deep fear because of bombs and missiles which are going from the sky,” she told Johnson during a press conference in Poland.
“Ukrainian people are desperately asking for the rights to protect our sky, we are asking for a no-fly zone. What’s the alternative for the 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.”
But the prime minister told Kaleniuk, the executive director of the Anti-Corruption Action Centre civil society organisation, that the UK would not risk a direct confrontation with Russia.
“I’m acutely conscious that there is not enough that we can do, as the UK government, to help in the way that you want and I’ve got to be honest about that.
“When you talk about the no-fly zone, as I said to Volodymyr Zelensky a couple of times, unfortunately the implication of that is the UK would be engaged in shooting down Russian planes, it would be engaged in direct combat with Russia.
“That’s not something that we can do or that we’ve envisaged. The consequences of that would be truly very, very difficult to control.”
Johnson earlier accused Vladimir Putin of unleashing “barbaric and indiscriminate” violence against Ukrainian civilians as Russian forces closed in on Kyiv.
A military convoy around 40 miles long is north of the Ukrainian capital and there are fears that the city will face a barrage of rockets and shells which could inflict devastating civilian casualties.