Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Wednesday warned that Poland will shoot down any object that crosses into the country’s territory.
"We will take the decision to shoot down flying objects when they violate our territory and fly over Poland - there is absolutely no discussion about that," Tusk said a news conference. However, he said that Warsaw would take a cautious approach in situations that are not straightforward.
"When we're dealing with situations that aren't entirely clear, such as the recent flight of Russian fighter jets over the Petrobaltic platform – but without any violation, because these aren't our territorial waters – you really need to think twice before deciding on actions that could trigger a very acute phase of conflict," he noted.
Furthermore, Tusk stated that he would need assurances that Poland would not face an escalating conflict on its own. "I also need to be absolutely certain... that all allies will treat this in exactly the same way as we do," he said. Similar call for shooting down Russian objects breaching NATO’s airspace was voiced by Czech President Petr Pavel who said on Sunday that in this way “Russia will realise very quickly that they have made a mistake and crossed the acceptable boundaries.”
This comes as the UN Security Council will meet on Monday in response to Russia’s violation of Estonia’s airspace. Three Russia fighter jets crossed into Estonia’s territory on Friday. Tallin on Sunday announced that a security meeting had been called in response to the incident. This was the first time in 34 years of its UN membership that Estonia requested such a meeting. The meeting will discuss what Estonia has described as a “blatant, reckless, and flagrant violation of NATO airspace.” Russia denied breaching Estonia’s airspace breach, with the Kremlin stating on Monday that the allegations levelled against Russia were aimed at stirring up tension. The incident in Estonia came days after over 20 Russian drones breached Poland’s airspace on September 8-9. Polish and allied fighter jets downed multiple Russian drones over the country. Another NATO member Romania also reported last week that its airspace was breached by three Russian fighter jets.
