Czech President Petr Pavel has stated that in the event of violations by Russia, NATO must respond accordingly, including militarily, such as shooting down an intruding aircraft.

Source: Pavel in an interview with Czech Television, cited by Radio Prague International

Details: He recalled this week’s violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighters and the recent incursion of two dozen Russian UAVs into Polish airspace.

Quote from Pavel: "What has happened in recent days in Poland and Estonia, and what has been happening in Ukraine for four years, concerns all of us, because if we do not maintain unity, sooner or later it will happen to us as well.

This is a significant escalation in European security, for which Russia is clearly responsible. I must say this is only another example of Russia’s behaviour, which has long been acting this way."

Details: Pavel said that Russia is not only “waging an aggressive war against a sovereign state [Ukraine – ed.]”, but is also provoking NATO countries in an unprecedented way, aiming not only to trigger a reaction it could later exploit but also to test “determination and ability to defend against such provocations”.

Quote: "This is absolutely irresponsible behaviour, since a violation of airspace is grounds for activating defence mechanisms, namely the downing of such an aircraft.

And of course, neither we nor Russia would want that.

Right now we must act firmly, and if violations occur, we must respond accordingly, including militarily.

Russia will very quickly realise that it has made a mistake and crossed the line. Unfortunately, this is balancing on the edge of conflict, but one cannot concede to evil."

Background:

On 19 September, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes.After that, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Russia’s chargé d’affaires in Estonia to lodge a protest and hand over a note regarding the violation of airspace.Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said that the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian military aircraft was “an extremely dangerous provocation”.NATO spokesperson Allison Hart confirmed that “Russian jets violated Estonian airspace” on the morning of Friday 19 September and stated that NATO responded to the incursion.On the night of 19-20 September, the Russian Defence Ministry claimed that their MiGs “had not violated” Estonian airspace.

Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!

From Ukrainska Pravda via this RSS feed