Czech president tells NATO to 'shoot down Russian jets' after Putin's aggressive move
Topics: Russia, Vladimir Putin, World News
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Milan Jaros/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Topics: Russia, Vladimir Putin, World News
Petr Pavel, the president of the Czech Republic, has urged NATO to take strong action regarding Russian aggression amid Vladimir Putin's latest move.
A trio of Russian MiG-31 fighter jets allegedly crossed into Estonia's airspace for approximately 12 minutes on Friday (September 19), a week after Russian drones violated Polish airspace.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna described Putin's latest move as 'unprecedentedly brazen', adding: "Russia has violated Estonian airspace four times already this year, which is unacceptable in itself, but today’s violation, during which three fighter jets entered our airspace, is unprecedentedly brazen.
"Russia’s ever-increasing testing of borders and aggressiveness must be responded to by rapidly strengthening political and economic pressure."
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Meanwhile, a NATO spokesperson said it was 'yet another example of reckless Russian behavior and NATO's ability to respond'.
Now, Pavel has said NATO should 'shoot down Russian jets if necessary', which comes after comments made by the Kremlin that NATO is 'at war with Russia'.
"Russia will realize very quickly that they have made a mistake and crossed the acceptable boundaries," he said, as per the Czech News Agency and Associated Press.
"Unfortunately, this is teetering on the edge of conflict, but giving in to evil is simply not an option."
Following Russia's latest move, EU foreign policy chief and former Estonian prime minister, Kaja Kallas, took to social media to issue a comment on the turbulent situation in Europe right now.
"Today's violation of Estonia's airspace by Russian military aircraft is an extremely dangerous provocation," she said.
"This marks the third such violation of EU airspace in days and further escalates tensions in the region. The EU stands in full solidarity with Estonia.
"I am in close contact with the Estonian government.
"We will continue to support our member states in strengthening their defenses with European resources.
"Putin is testing the West's resolve. We must not show weakness."
Russia has denied violating both Poland's and Estonia's airspace, with Moscow claiming its jets were in the neutral Baltic waters rather than Estonia airspace.
Donald Trump has also been speaking about Russia's latest move, saying: "I don't love it. I don't like it when that happens. It could be big trouble."
In the wake of the airspace violations, Poland requested to invoke NATO's Article 4, which means NATO members 'will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened'.