NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that NATO would "if necessary" shoot down planes that violate the airspace of member countries, but only after a thorough assessment of the existing threat. His words were quoted by Sky News on Tuesday, September 23.
Journalists asked Rutte at a press conference whether NATO was ready to shoot down planes, including russian ones, if they violated the airspace of member countries, as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk had threatened to do.
"I think what he [Tusk] said was, if necessary, we are willing to shoot down a plane, if necessary, and that comes back to what I said: we will always assess the situation, to see what immediate threat the plane poses," the NATO Secretary General said.
However, Rutte did not comment on the question of whether Poland is capable of acting alone and shooting down enemy aircraft: "I just just commented on the prime minister and I would like to leave it at that."
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on September 22, Donald Tusk said that Poland would not hesitate to shoot down air targets that violate its airspace and pose a threat, but would apply a more cautious approach to situations that are "less unambiguous."
On the night of September 19-20, British Eurofighter Typhoon fighters carried out the first combat sortie as part of NATO's "Eastern Sentinel" mission, which was announced after the incident with Russian UAVs.
Recall, on the night of September 9-10, russian UAVs flew into Polish territory.
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