NATO warns members against shooting down Russian missiles

NATO does not want to become directly involved in a conflict with Moscow, the US-led bloc spokesperson said on Monday, addressing demands from Ukraine and statements by Poland’s foreign minister.

Kiev has repeatedly asked its Western backers to shoot down Russian missiles and drones in its airspace, as its own air defenses became degraded. A security pact to that effect was signed with Warsaw in July. 

“NATO is not a party to the conflict and will not become a party to it,” a spokesperson for the bloc told the Spanish news agency Europa Press, adding that the bloc’s responsibility is to “prevent escalation.”

While each member of the bloc has the right to protect their own airspace, they should “closely consult” with others when doing so “can affect NATO as a whole,” the spokesperson said.

Their comments followed an interview by Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to Financial Times, in which he endorsed the idea of shooting down Russian targets in the sky over Ukraine.

“When hostile missiles are on course of entering our airspace, it would be legitimate self-defense, because once they do cross into our airspace, the risk of debris injuring someone is significant,” Sikorski told FT.

“Membership in NATO does not trump each country’s responsibility for the protection of its own airspace — it’s our own constitutional duty,” Sikorski explained.

Warsaw and Kiev signed a defense pact in July that provided for discussions “aimed at examining rationale and feasibility of possible intercepting” of Russian missiles and drones, but Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz has maintained that this would not be done without NATO approval.

Mircea Geoana, NATO’s outgoing deputy secretary-general, told FT that the bloc respects every member’s “sovereign right to deliver national security,” but they “always consult before going into something that could have consequences on all of us.” Poland has always been “impeccable” when it came to such consultations, Geoana added.

According to Geoana, NATO has to “do whatever we can to help Ukraine and do whatever we can to avoid escalation.”

Last week, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov discussed the plans for an “air defense shield” with NATO officials in Brussels, according to Europa Press.