British fighter jets fly over Poland amid Russian drone threat
發佈日期: 2025-09-21 19:55
TVB News
Russia has accused the UK of trying to continue the war in Ukraine as British fighter jets conducted NATO air defence missions over Poland.
This was in response to Russian drones shot down by Poland last week.
The RAF mission was planned before Estonia accused Russia of flying warplanes over an island in the Baltic Sea on Friday.
Britain's deputy prime minister has warned of a "serous escalation."
In the cockpit of a Royal Air Force Typhoon.
The UK fighter jet over Poland for the first time -- filmed two nights ago but just released.
Alleged Russian drones were shot down by Poland over this airspace 11 days ago.
Poland and NATO allies scrambling jets on Saturday as Russia launched widespread strikes on Ukraine, which borders Poland to the east.
NATO members on heightened alert after three Russian jets were said to have violated Estonian airspace on Friday.
NATO says it is ready to defend its territory, Britain ready to play its part.
UK Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy says: "I don't think NATO is holding back. We have sent a typhoon and a voyager to support NATO missions in the eastern flank. Of course, we are in close contact with both Poland and Estonia.
In Estonia's capital, Talinn, tensions and fears that a path plotted away from a Soviet past could be eroded.
Estonia's foreign minister Margus Tsahkna saying Russia's latest breach of their airspace was "unprecedented."
and going on to say: "We are talking about 12 minutes of violation. Last time we saw it, just before Estonia joined NATO, it was 2003. But now the global situation is totally different, the regional situation is different. Just a couple of days before we saw a full-scale attack against Poland with 19 drones.
Estonia's foreign minister referring to the drones in Polish airspace last week.
He claims a "full-scale attack" but Moscow denies the drones were theirs and rejects Estonia's claims that three MiG-31 fighters flew over Vaindloo island in the Baltic Sea two days ago.
Estonia says Italian pilots, carrying out NATO air policing,told the Russians to change course.
Ants Kiviselg is the Commander of Estonia's Military Intelligence Centre says : "There was no reaction from the Russian pilots. So we can say that at least some of the flight path was intentional and they must have known that they were in Estonian airspace.
Estonia's defence minister was asked why the warplanes were not shot down.
Hanno Pevkur said that would have been a disproportionate response< "Russia is provoking not only in Poland, not only Estonia, all NATO, in cyber field, in airspace,and the reason behind that is that they think that we should talk more about our own defence and not so much about Ukraine.
In Ukraine, dozens were wounded and there was damage to buildings in Dnipro as Russia launched a large-scale drone attack which totalled more than 500 UAVs.
Moscow says it was targeting ammunition depots and Ukrainian drone launchers with at least nine regions hit meaning much of Ukraine was under air raid alert over the weekend.
