Alexei Meshkov, Russia’s ambassador to France, said Thursday that downing any Russian aircraft would mean war – regardless of whether European airspace had been violated.
Meshkov’s remarks came amid growing accusations from European nations that Russian planes and drones have breached their airspace in recent weeks, with NATO’s chief saying that members are free to engage the aircraft as they deem fit.
Meshkov made the statement during a radio interview when asked about Russia’s potential response if its planes were downed.
“It will be war, what else is possible?” Meshkov said on RTL radio, according to Russian state media TASS.
Meshkov also claimed that Russia does not shoot down aircraft that infringes its airspace.
“Quite a few planes violate our airspace, whether accidentally or not. No one shoots them down,” he added.
While Russia has not shot down planes that entered its airspace, Russia and Moscow-backed separatists were held responsible for bringing down the Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 after striking it with a surface-to-air missile over eastern Ukraine in July 2014 after the aircraft strayed into the airspace.
In 1983, a Soviet Su-15TM Flagon-F interceptor also shot down the Korean Air Lines Flight 007, killing all onboard when the aircraft diverted from its planned route.
In his remarks, Meshkov also claimed that the West produced no evidence of the alleged airspace violations.
Despite Meshkov’s comments, debris from Russian drones were spotted in Poland after one of incident, followed a few days later by Russian MiG-31 fighter bombers violating Estonian airspace, prompting Baltic nations to seek an emergency UN consultation for the first time since its founding.
Denmark’s Aalborg Airport was shut down early Thursday, Sept. 25, after unidentified drones were spotted overhead with local media later reporting additional drone activity near Esbjerg, Sønderborg, and Skridstrup airports. The Skridstrup base houses Denmark’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets.
Russia denied involvement and responsibility for all the recent incidents.