Statements about the readiness of NATO countries to shoot down Russian military aircraft allegedly violating the airspace of the North Atlantic Alliance are irresponsible. This was stated at a briefing by the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov.
So the Kremlin representative commented on the publication of Bloomberg, which reported that diplomats from the UK, Germany and France held a meeting in Moscow with Russian officials at which they protested against what they called violations of airspace in Poland and Estonia, and also warned about the readiness to shoot down Russian aircraft.
"I don't even want to talk about it, it's a very irresponsible statement. It is very irresponsible, because Russia's accusations that its military aircraft violated someone's airspace and invaded someone's are groundless. There was no convincing evidence of this," Peskov stressed, quoted by TASS.
EADaily adds: according to Bloomberg sources, the warning of representatives of NATO countries sounded during a "tense meeting" of the heads of the embassies of Great Britain, Germany and France with the Russian side. In particular, European diplomats expressed concern about the alleged intrusion of Russian MiG-31 fighters into Estonian airspace. They stressed that, in their opinion, the incident was deliberate. As Bloomberg pointed out, the Russian representative actually confirmed this, saying that the latest such cases were "a response to the Ukrainian attacks on Crimea," which "would not have been possible without NATO support." Thus, he made it clear that Moscow considers the North Atlantic Alliance already involved in military operations in Ukraine and confrontation with the Russian Federation. At the same time, according to sources, the Russian side made extensive notes at the meeting, which is why the European delegation decided that the negotiators were instructed to provide the leadership with a detailed report on the NATO position.