Czech President Petr Pavel has said NATO must respond decisively to Russian incursions into allied airspace, including, if necessary, by shooting down Russian military jets.
His remarks to Czech media on Saturday came a day after three Russian jets were reported to have violated Estonian airspace.
Moscow has denied the incident, but tensions have mounted in recent weeks after Poland and Romania, both NATO members, said Russian drones had entered their territory.
“Russia will realise very quickly that they have made a mistake and crossed acceptable boundaries. Unfortunately, this is teetering on the edge of conflict, but giving in to evil is simply not an option,” said Pavel, a former chair of NATO’s Military Committee, in an interview with Czech public television.
Amid rising tensions, German Eurofighters were dispatched to track a Russian Il-20M in neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea on Sunday morning before passing the escort to NATO partners in Sweden.
A Turkish precedent?
Calls for tougher action have also come from other NATO members. Posting on Saturday on X, Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė suggested NATO member “Turkey set an example” of how to respond to such incidents in 2015 when it shot down a Russian fighter jet that violated its airspace.
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Friday he would be briefed on the incursion, commenting: “I don’t love it. I don’t like when that happens. It could be big trouble, but I’ll let you know later.”
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told AP the incident was “a very serious violation of NATO airspace”, noting that the last comparable breach occurred in 2003, shortly before Estonia joined the alliance.
Tallinn has said it will request consultations under Article 4 of NATO’s founding treaty, which allows members to convene when they feel their security is under threat. Poland invoked the same article earlier this month, after around 20 Russian drones crossed into its territory on 10 September. Three days later, Romania also reported a violation during a large-scale Russian air assault on Ukraine.
In response to escalating incidents, NATO recently announced the launch of its “Eastern Sentry” mission to strengthen air and missile defence along the alliance’s eastern flank.
updating with German air force reporting separate incident on Sunday
(aw, th)
