Russian planes in NATO space. Rutte makes the issue of shootings clear

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday before the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels that he did not agree with the opinion that if a Russian plane intrudes into NATO airspace – intentionally or not – it should be shot down in any case. In his opinion, it should be assessed whether it poses a threat.

– Some people claim – not within NATO, but sometimes in public debate – that if a Russian plane, whether intentionally or not, intrudes into NATO airspace, it must be shot down in any case. I don't agree with that. I think you need to make sure you are absolutely sure whether it poses a risk or not. If he poses a threat, we can do everything necessary to prevent that threat from materializing,” Rutte said.

He added that if the plane does not pose a threat, “of course our role is to make sure that this aircraft, which strayed beyond its airspace into NATO airspace, is gently guided out of our airspace.” “Then we will tell the Russians clearly: stop doing this,” he said.

– When you look at what happened in Poland and Estonia, I think we reacted exactly as expected. Regarding drones, we made sure that those posing a threat were shot down. As for the MiGi-31 in Estonian airspace, it was assessed whether they posed a threat – they did not. So they were taken out of the airspace by Italian F-35s. And this is exactly what we trained and prepared for, concluded Rutte.

He added that this is nothing new. – We've been doing this for 60, 70 years. We did it with the Soviets, with the Russians, he emphasized.

In September, three Russian MiG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace near the island of Vaindloo in the Gulf of Finland and remained there for about 12 minutes. Earlier, on the night of September 9-10, about 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace. Several were shot down by NATO fighters.

From Brussels Łukasz Osiński (PAP)

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