If any NATO country shoots down a Russian plane, it will mean the beginning of a military conflict.
Points of attention
- Russian diplomat Meshkov warns of potential war if NATO shoots down Russian planes violating airspace, citing provocative actions by NATO aviation.
- Tensions escalate between Russia and NATO as Russian aircraft continue to violate NATO airspace, prompting diplomatic protests and international consultations.
- Recent incidents of Russian aircraft violating Estonian and Norwegian airspace spark diplomatic outrage and calls for NATO action under Article 4.
Russian diplomat Meshkov threatens NATO with war
This was stated by the Russian Ambassador to France, Alexei Meshkov, in an interview with RTL.
"It will be a war," Meshkov said in response to a question about Moscow's reaction in the event of an attack on a Russian plane.
In addition, he noted that Russian aircraft allegedly regularly encounter "provocative actions by NATO aviation," but Russia avoids escalation and does not resort to forceful measures.
Many NATO planes violate Russian airspace, this happens quite often. But they are not shot down.
He also cynically rejected accusations of Russian drones and aircraft intruding into European airspace in recent weeks.
Russia doesn't do that, it doesn't play games with anyone. It's not really our style.
Earlier, on September 21, NATO scrambled fighter jets to intercept a Russian reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea. Two days earlier, on September 19, Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated Estonian airspace and remained there for 12 minutes.
In response, the Estonian Foreign Ministry summoned the Russian chargé d'affaires to protest, and the government turned to NATO allies for consultations under Article 4. At the same time, the Russian Federation denies any violation.
In addition, Norway reported that this year the Russian Federation violated their airspace three times — each violation lasted from one to four minutes.
