The North Atlantic Alliance is much stronger than the aggressor country of russia, so it responds proportionally to the incursion of russian planes without shooting them down. This was stated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Clash Report reported on Tuesday, October 14.
Rutte stressed that a much stronger position is to remove russian planes from the airspace of NATO countries as long as they do not pose a threat.
NATO's Rutte on Russian incursions into NATO airspace:
As long as they don't pose a threat, we will gently guide them out of our airspace.
It's a proportional response — we are so much stronger than the Russians.
If we were weak, maybe we'd shoot them down immediately, but… pic.twitter.com/d5L7CLtFIW
— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 14, 2025
"As long as they don't pose a threat, we will carefully remove them from our airspace. This is a proportionate response - we are much stronger than the russians. If we were weak, maybe we would shoot them down immediately, but being stronger, our response is proportionate," the NATO Secretary General emphasized.
According to him, NATO's military is far superior to the russian military, just as NATO's economy is 25 times larger than russia's. Also, the alliance's air force "cannot even be compared closely" to russian aircraft, Rutte said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on September 23, US President Donald Trump said that NATO member states should shoot down planes of the aggressor country of russia that violate their airspace.
At the same time, on September 23, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that NATO would not shoot down russian planes unless they attacked NATO members.
On September 25, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte supported US President Donald Trump's statement that NATO member states should "if necessary" shoot down drones and planes of the aggressor country of russia.
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