The head of the Estonian armed forces defended the response to Russian violations of his country's airspace, saying that the decision to shoot down the planes, as suggested, would have been a strategic mistake, DPA reported, BTA reported.
"I continue to believe that it would have been a strategic mistake if we had shot them down then. The consequences for us would have been worse than the diplomatic success we achieved by resolving this incident. "Many of our allies probably won't understand such a step," Andrus Merilo said in an interview with Estonian television broadcast late last night.
According to Estonia, three Russian MiG-31 warplanes illegally flew into the country's airspace over the Baltic Sea for 12 minutes on September 19.
Estonia has requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council and consultations with its NATO allies to discuss the airspace violation. In a subsequent statement, NATO warned Russia of the possible use of force in response to future violations.
The incident has also sparked talk of a tougher response to airspace violations, including shooting down Russian aircraft.
Andrus Merilo said that dealing with future incidents would depend on the situation and stressed that NATO would respond decisively and use force if necessary. But there was no reason to shoot down the Russian planes two weeks ago, the Estonian commander of the Estonian forces said. He added that the Russian planes' armament was not designed to destroy ground targets, so they were not classified as an immediate threat.
Despite the recent airspace violations, Merilo believes the overall assessment of the threat to Estonia has not changed. Given that Russian forces remain engaged in the conflict in Ukraine, the risk of a conventional military attack has not increased, he added.