US' Sectretary Of Defense: No Such Thing As 'No-Fly Zone Light'

US Secretary of Defense Llyod Austin III speaking alongside his Slovakian counterpart Jaroslav Nad' in Bratislava.

• Livestream: https://www.c-span.org/video/?518788-1/defense-secretary-austin-joint-news-conference-slovakian-counterpart
• Austin: "There's no such thing as a no-fly-zone 'light. A no-fly zone means you’re in military conflict with Russia,”
• Austin "supports Slovakia's current planning to host NATO forces to enhance Europe's defence...[I commend it] for its contributions to NATO humanitarian and military assistance provided to Ukraine [and for generosity shown] to the innocent refugees fleeing Putin's war of choice."
• Russia's state-owned TASS asks Austin about possible use of Slovakian S-300 land-to-air defence systems in Ukraine. Austin says that 'no announcements regarding new air defences have been made'
• Nad' says that Slovakia has "old Russian or Soviet defense systems" like S-300 and MIG-29s. "We're discussing various options of how to fill in this gap If we decided not to use a MIG 29 anymore"
• Austin: Russia is '"using a lot of rockets, missiles and artillery, so there are a number of things that can be used to counter that. We've seen drones have been very effective. We've also seen having the ability to conduct counter fire with rockets and artillery is also very effective."