RTL<\/a>, without providing an example.<\/p>\nHe doubled down on Russia’s denial of any involvement in recent drone incursions across Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
‘Russia doesn’t do that, play with anyone. It’s not really our thing,’ he added, stressing that the West had ‘fooled’ Moscow ‘on many occasions.’<\/p>\n
Poland downed at least three Russian drones during attacks on Ukraine earlier this month.<\/p>\n
It was the first time that Russian drones were shot down over NATO territory since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.<\/p>\n
Polish prime minister Donald Tusk warned ‘the situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two.’<\/p>\n
European officials called the move from Vladimir Putin a deliberate provocation and NATO was forced to scramble fighter jets to shoot them down.<\/p>\n
Romania also reported a Russian drone breaching its airspace just days later.<\/p>\n
And on Friday Estonia’s airspace was violated by three Russian fighter jets.<\/p>\n
Poland’s government is now planning to scrap the restrictive measure under a new ‘shoot first, ask later’ policy, which is intended to give the military more flexibility when it comes to responding to threats.<\/p>\n
The proposed new legislation was submitted by the country’s defence ministry in June, but the application has been reportedly fast-tracked.<\/p>\n
The incursion and NATO’s response raised concerns that war could spill over – a fear that has been growing in Europe as Russia steps up its attacks and peace efforts falter.<\/p>\n
Tusk also said earlier this week that his nation will not hesitate to shoot down objects that violate its airspace, adding to a sense among NATO leaders that Moscow is testing the alliance’s readiness and resolve, with some urging a firm response.<\/p>\n
‘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 told a news conference, adding that Poland will take a more cautious approach to situations that are less clear-cut.<\/p>\n
‘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 added.<\/p>\n
Tusk said that he would also need to be certain that Poland would not be alone if a conflict started to escalate.<\/p>\n
‘I also need to be absolutely certain… that all allies will treat this in exactly the same way as we do,’ he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Royal Navy has scrambled a warship to shadow a Russian frigate and freighter off the UK coast, amid warnings Moscow is sending a rising number of ships through British waters.<\/p>\n
Teams aboard HMS Iron Duke and a Wildcat helicopter tracked the heavily-armed warship RFN Neustrashimy as it escorted cargo ship Sparta IV through the North Sea and the English Channel.<\/p>\n
The mission is the latest in a string of similar operations carried out by the Royal Navy and its Nato allies in recent months, which are worrying military top brass.<\/p>\n
‘Russian warships are increasingly transiting through the English Channel,’ defence minister Luke Pollard today warned.<\/p>\n
‘The Royal Navy protects the UK 24\/7 to monitor Russian movements, ensuring the security of our waters and undersea cables.<\/p>\n
‘Alongside our commitment to Nato’s Eastern Sentry, this is a clear demonstration of how the UK stands firm with our Nato allies to deter Russian aggression.’<\/p>\n
Source\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Is Russia testing NATO\u2019s response with repeated airspace incursions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":122523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-315904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-russia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315904"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315904\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":315907,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315904\/revisions\/315907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/122523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}