If NATO Shoots Down A Russian Plane It Would Be War, Ambassador Warns

The below interview exchange between CNN’s warmonger in chief Christiane Amanpour and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is a perfect illustrator of why NATO countries in eastern Europe and the Baltics are now hyping recent Russian drones incursions into European airspace. There is a new dangerous drive to ‘confront’ Russia, potentially sparking WW3, at a moment Ukraine forces continue steadily losing ground along the front lines…

CNN’s Amanpour: Türkiye shot down a Russian jet 10 years ago, and did not suffer consequences necessarily.

Ursula von der Leyen: It is a principle of NATO and Article 5.

Amanpour: What is taking you so long? Is it time now to punch back in the nose?

Ursula von der Leyen: It is… pic.twitter.com/772aWwWFKk

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 25, 2025

Amanpour wants NATO and the EU to “punch back” against Russia and hit it “on the nose” – even though this chickenhawk armchair general herself will never fight this conflict.

Von der Leyen assured Amanpour that the option of shooting Russian aircraft out of the sky is “on the table” – following last week’s alleged drone and jet incursion incidents which took place in Poland, Romania, and Estonia. In each instance jets were scrambled from the NATO countries.

“My opinion is we have to defend every square centimeter of the territory,” von der Leyen told the CNN correspondent. “That means if there is an intrusion in the airspace, after warning, after being very clear, of course the option of shooting down a fighter jet that is intruding our airspace is on the table.”

President Trump could potentially veto such a drastic action if formal consultations were held, but it does present the highly dangerous scenario of a NATO member choosing to ‘shoot first, consult later’ if airspace is violated.

Russian Ambassador to France, Alexey Meshkov, has said in a fresh interview with the RTL news channel published Thursday that if NATO shoots down a Russian plane this “would be war”.

He warned: “You know, there are many NATO planes that violate Russian airspace, deliberately or not, but it happens quite often. They are not shot down afterward.” He didn’t follow with any specific example of this, however.

BIG: Russian Ambassador to France, Alexey Meshkov:

If NATO shoots down a Russian plane, it would be WAR.

How else can it be described?

Source: RTL pic.twitter.com/RjemfNuMDY

— Clash Report (@clashreport) September 25, 2025

Meshkov further in the remarks denied accusations that Russian warplanes have been deliberately entering NATO countries’ airspace. The biggest instance was Estonia’s allegation that three Russian MiG-31 jets violated Estonia for 12-minutes over the Gulf of Finland last Friday morning.

Currently, there’s been a lot of speculation over where President Trump stands in all of this. He has made comments which appeared to downplay the drone and jet incursion incidents, but he’s also this week at the UN encouraged Ukraine’s Zelensky to seek to take back all territory currently held by the Russians. He has previously repeatedly said that the world must avoid WW3 with Russia at all costs, and has sought to improve US-Russia bilateral relations of late.