Independently from NATO, Europe is contemplating the deployment of 120 fighter jets to safeguard the skies over Ukraine.

Once again, Europe is revisiting the Sky Shield plan, which now includes the deployment of allied air forces in the form of 120 fighter jets to defend Ukrainian airspace. The initiative will operate independently of NATO infrastructure. This could potentially contribute to the “truce in the sky” concept previously suggested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The protection would encompass Kyiv, three operational nuclear power plants (Rivne, Pivdenno-Ukrayinsʹka, and Khmelnytsky), Odesa, and Lviv, but not the front line or the eastern part of the country. The plan’s execution could “achieve greater military, political, and socio-economic impacts than 10,000 soldiers of the European ground forces,” the Guardian noted.

Sky Shield is a collaborative effort between European air forces and the Ukrainian military that has been discussed since February 2022, but the proposal has stalled due to European countries’ concerns about being drawn into the war. The acrimonious meeting between President Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump last week has renewed European interest in the plan to protect a portion of Ukraine’s airspace.