Pavel called for a tough response to Russia's violations of NATO airspace

NATO must respond strongly to Russian provocations, such as yesterday's incursion of fighter jets into Estonian airspace. In particular, in such situations, Russian aircraft can be shot down.

This was stated on Czech television by the country's President Petr Pavel, quoted by Echo24.

I must call this extremely irresponsible behavior, because violating airspace is a pretext for activating defense mechanisms and, therefore, shooting down such an aircraft. And no one, neither on our side nor on the Russian side, would want that.

Peter Pavel

President of the Czech Republic

The Czech president recalled that Turkey resorted to a harsh response to Russian provocations by shooting down a Russian Su-24 bomber in November 2015 during the war in Syria.

They test our resilience, our determination to defend ourselves. I think we must be extremely firm that if there is a violation of the rules, we must respond to them adequately, including by military means. Russia will very quickly realize that it has made a mistake, that it has crossed the permissible limits. But, unfortunately, it really balances on the edge of conflict, but it is simply impossible to give in to evil.

Petr Pavel is not the only one in the Czech Republic who wants to see a more decisive NATO response to Russian provocations. The country's former Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek expressed a similar opinion the day before.

I would very much like to see the Article 4 consultations result in NATO sending a clear message to the Kremlin: “Next time we enter the airspace of any of our countries, we will fire immediately and without warning.” I do not believe the Russians are capable of understanding a different view.