Russia warns NATO and EU ‘any aggression will be met with decisive response’
Vladimir Putin’s top diplomat warned NATO and the European Union that ‘any aggression against Russia will be met with a decisive response’.
Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov issued the caution at the United Nations General Assembly.
His comments come as tensions have surged on the military alliance’s eastern flanks following a series of perceived provocations from the Kremlin.
NATO jets have been scrambled to down drones flying over Poland, while alarms were raised in Estonia when Russian fighter planes flew into its territory and lingered for 12 minutes.
Russia has denied its planes entered Estonian airspace and has said the drones didn’t target Poland, with ally Belarus claiming Ukrainian signal-jamming sent the devices off course.
Lavrov said today: ‘Russia is being accused of almost planning to attack the North Atlantic Alliance and European Union countries.
‘President Putin has repeatedly debunked these provocations.’
He added: ‘Russia has never had and does not have any such intentions.
‘However, any aggression against my country will be met with a decisive response. There should be no doubt about this among those in NATO and the EU.’
US President Donald Trump said this week he endorses the idea of shooting down Russian jets that violate NATO airspace.
He also mocked Russia’s military performance in Ukraine, calling it a ‘paper tiger’.
The US told the UN Security Council it would ‘defend every inch of NATO territory’.
His new view of Ukraine comes after he met with Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines at the UNGA on Tuesday.
The Ukrainian president said the pair had ‘a good meeting’ in his speech the following day.
He once again appealed to the gathering of presidents, prime ministers and other top officials to get Russia out of his country — and warned that inaction would put other countries at risk.
‘Ukraine is only the first,’ Zelensky said.
Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister for more than two decades, said Moscow was alarmed by remarks by some politicians in EU and NATO capitals of a looming World War Three as a ‘likely scenario’.
‘These figures are undermining any efforts to find a fair balance of interests among all of the members of the international community by trying to impose their unilateral approaches on everyone else,’ he said.
Lavrov met US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the UNGA.
He said the two agreed to hold talks in the coming months.
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