A member of the Ukrainian parliament said Wednesday that President Joe Biden's State of the Union address was "a total disappointment" in light of Russia's bloodthirsty invasion of her country.
"The whole of Ukraine" was watching Biden's address, Deputy Oleksandra Ustinova told Today's Savannah Guthrie, but the State of the Union "was a total disappointment for us."
"Today, the whole world is watching Ukrainians being executed," Ustinova said. "We see bombs going into our civilian houses every day. We see children dying every day on the streets and in their houses if they didn't make it to the bomb shelter. We see bombs coming to the orphanages, to the schools."
Biden said during the address that the United States will not send troops to defend Ukraine, which is not a NATO member, or enforce a no-fly zone over the country. A no-fly zone will amount to a direct confrontation with Russian forces, the administration says.
Ustinova, however, said a no-fly zone is necessary. "If we do not protect our sky, if there is [not] a no-fly zone, or if there is no dome to protect it with the air defense, we will all go down," she said.
The Ukrainian parliament member thinks Russian president Vladimir Putin will not stop at her country. "When I see President Biden saying that we're going to protect every inch of the NATO territory, excuse me, [Ukraine was] promised the same thing when we gave up our nuclear weapons," she said.
Ukraine in 1994 signed the Budapest Memorandum, under which it gave up its nuclear weapons in exchange for Russia's commitment to never attacking the country.
"What is the red line that Putin has to cross for NATO and the U.S. to step in?" Ustinova asked.