United States President Donald Trump has said he is ready to support the defence of Poland and the Baltic States if Russia continues to escalate the situation in the region.
Asked directly by a journalist before leaving the White House by helicopter whether he would help defend NATO allies against possible aggression by Moscow, Trump replied, “Yes, I will help.”
Commenting on the latest reports about the situation in Estonia, the American president added: “we don’t like it”, expressing dissatisfaction with the Kremlin’s actions near the eastern flank of the Alliance.
Earlier it became known that the United Nations Security Council convenes an emergency meeting on Monday, 22 September, in response to Russia’s audacious violation of Estonian airspace last Friday, according to the Estonian Foreign Ministry. It is noted that this is the first time in the 34 years of Estonia’s membership in the UN that the country has officially requested an emergency meeting of the Security Council.
Minister Tsahkna stressed that this airspace violation is part of a wider pattern of Russian behaviour aimed at testing the resolve of Europe and NATO.
“A few days ago, 19 Russian drones entered Polish airspace and a Russian strike drone remained in Romanian airspace for an hour. These are not isolated incidents, but part of a broader pattern of escalation by Russia, both regionally and globally. Such behaviour requires an international response,” the Estonian foreign minister added.
On 19 September, three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets entered Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland without permission and stayed there for a total of 12 minutes. According to the Baltic country’s Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, this is the fourth time since the beginning of the year that Russia has violated Estonian airspace, but today’s incident is “unprecedentedly audacious.”
Russia’s defence ministry said the Russian planes had not violated Estonian airspace and that the three Russian aircraft had performed a “planned flight” from Karelia airfield to an unspecified airfield in the Kaliningrad region in accordance with international law.
NATO called the actions another example of Russia’s “reckless behaviour” and the EU called it an “extremely dangerous provocation”. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said that this was the third such violation of EU airspace in a few days and further aggravates tensions in the region.