Czech President Petr Pavel insists that NATO must openly demonstrate its readiness to respond to Russian aggression, otherwise Moscow will continue to expand the alliance and its European borders.
"There may come a time when we will have to shoot down some of these planes or drones that test our readiness," predicted Pavel, a retired general and former chairman of NATO's Military Committee, speaking to Fox News on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week.
Pavel said that alliance members understandably want to avoid escalation, but they risk send the wrong signal by warning that Moscow views restraint as weakness and is testing the alliance's defenses with its continued aggression.
"What I fear is that they see a lack of will on our part to take decisive action, Pavel said. In Russian perceptions, this demonstrates weakness. They respect strength."
The warning followed fresh incidents on NATO's eastern flank, where a Russian Mi-8 military helicopter crossed from Kaliningrad into Polish airspace on Wednesday, prompting Poland to scramble fighter jets. Romania on Thursday scrambled F-16 fighter jets after another unidentified air target crossed its border from Ukraine.
Denmark's military intelligence also warned on Thursday that Russia was likely to step up hybrid attacks against NATO in the coming months and assessed a "low but growing" risk of a limited Russian military attack against one or more NATO countries bordering Russia.