Russian jets violating Nato airspace will be shot down, warn allies

Nato allies have vowed to shoot down any Russian aircraft that violate a member's airspace, amid rising tensions after Moscow was accused of repeated incursions into the territory of the alliance in recent weeks.

- Pjotr Sauer

"If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don't come here to whine about it," Poland's foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, told an emergency meeting of the UN security council in New York yesterday, called to discuss Russian airspace incursion over Estonia.

His warning was echoed by Poland's prime minister, Donald Tusk, who told reporters earlier in the day: "I want to be very clear. We will make a decision to shoot down flying objects without discussion when they violate our territory and fly over Poland."