ANTALYA, 11 Mar (AFP)- NATO must not allow Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to spill over into an open conflict between the alliance and Moscow, its chief Jens Stoltenberg said Friday, warning a no-fly zone would likely lead to full-scale war.

NATO’s rejection of Ukrainian calls to provide air cover against Russian missiles and warplanes has drawn strong criticism from Kyiv, which accused the alliance of giving Moscow the greenlight to press ahead with its assault.

“We have a responsibility to prevent this conflict from escalating beyond Ukraine’s borders to becoming a full-fledged war between Russia and NATO,” the NATO secretary general said in an interview on the sidelines of a forum in Turkey.

He warned that a no-fly zone over Ukraine would “most likely lead to a full war between NATO and Russia,” causing “so much more suffering, so much more death and destruction.”

Stoltenberg said a no-fly zone over Ukraine would mean that NATO would have to take out Russian air defense systems not only in Ukraine, but also around Belarus and Russia.