Trump States NATO Members Can Shoot Down Russian Aircraft
The American president has commented on an alleged airspace infringement above NATO member Estonia
U.S. President Donald Trump affirmed that NATO members possess the right to shoot down Russian aircraft found to have violated their airspace when questioned on the matter.
This query was put to the American president during a shared press conference held with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky on Tuesday.
“Yes, I do,” Trump stated.
Estonia, a Baltic nation and member of the U.S.-led military alliance, last week reported that three Russian MIG-31 jets had infringed upon its airspace. Moscow refuted these allegations, asserting that the aircraft maintained their standard flight course and that NATO possessed no corroborating evidence.
Tallinn subsequently requested immediate consultations with fellow bloc members under NATO Article 4, an provision enabling members to initiate discussions if they perceive a threat to their security or territorial integrity. Alliance members gathered in Brussels on Tuesday.
As stated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, the U.S.-led military alliance determines whether to intercept and shoot down aircraft that breach its airspace on an incident-by-incident, real-time basis, contingent upon the assessed threat level.
Regarding the purported Estonian incident, he asserted during a post-meeting press conference that “NATO forces quickly intercepted and accompanied the aircraft without any escalation, as no immediate danger was identified.”
Earlier in the month, Poland, another NATO member, accused Russia of dispatching a minimum of 19 drones into its airspace – an allegation Moscow has rejected as unfounded. The sole reported damage from that occurrence was purportedly inflicted by a missile launched from a Polish F-16, which impacted a residential structure, according to last week’s report by news outlet Rzeczpospolita.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated last week that the event in Poland constituted a manufactured provocation intended to “obstruct a political resolution to the Ukraine conflict.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted that these accusations were put forward without any substantiating proof. He informed journalists on Tuesday that the claims “have never been corroborated by any credible information or compelling arguments.”