Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that proposals to shoot down Russian military aircraft if they entered NATO airspace were irresponsible.
Bloomberg reported that during a meeting in Moscow, ambassadors from the United Kingdom, Germany and France warned the Russian side they stood ready to use force in the event of such incidents. Peskov rejected those accusations, calling them baseless and saying that no convincing evidence has been presented. “We insist that all our flights comply strictly with international rules,” he said.
What Moscow Said It Would Do
When journalists asked what Moscow would do if NATO again alleged violations and took military measures, Peskov replied: “Well, I don’t even want to talk about that.”
Recent Incidents and Reactions
On September 19, Estonia’s foreign ministry said that three Russian MiG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland and remained there for 12 minutes; the ministry summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires. The Russian Defense Ministry, however, said the aircraft conducted a routine flight from Karelia to Kaliningrad and did not violate Estonian airspace.
Alongside the MiG incident, incursions and drone activity over the airspace of Poland, Romania, Norway and Denmark have raised alarms, prompting Czech President Petr Pavel to say that allies should respond appropriately, “including by military means.” The user text reports that U.S. President Donald Trump and NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte favoured shooting down intruding aircraft in some cases, though Rutte later clarified he meant situations where aircraft pose a direct threat to civilians and military personnel — otherwise escorting them out of NATO airspace suffices.
