But business as usual now means accepting Russians bombing maternity hospitals and theaters full of civilians taking shelter. These atrocities are part of the Russian siege on the city of Mariupol, which has left hundreds of thousands of residents without food, clean water, electricity and communications. More than 1,200 civilians have been murdered. Russia violated an agreement on a humanitarian corridor almost before it began. This is how it wages wars. It did it in Grozny in 1999 and in Syria in 2015. Now, it is doing it in Ukraine. This is a scorched-earth campaign to wipe Ukraine ― its people, its culture, its history — off the map.

Just as many erroneously predicted that Ukraine would fall within 72 hours, many failed to predict the mass atrocities the Russian troops would commit despite their long history of absolute disregard for life, and lust for blood and destruction. Only the establishment of a no-fly zone to protect humanitarian corridors will stop the carnage, just as the United States and its allies and partners did in Iraq in 1991, in Bosnia from 1993 to 1995, and in Libya in 2011. Despite these countries not belonging to NATO, the West intervened to stop the inhumane targeting of civilians and facilitate humanitarian assistance, which saved countless lives.

If the West won’t do it now, then we plead for the proper weapons so we can do it ourselves. If not, the loss of people, infrastructure, businesses and our historic landmarks and monuments will be on the West’s collective conscience.