The UN Security Council has been meeting with the topic, Russia’s apparent recent drone incursion into Poland and more recent alleged fighter jet incursion into Estonian airspace.
The usual suspects are saying the expected things. Honestly; it wasn’t that long ago that Colin Powell was waving around fake tubes of ‘WMD’ to justify the West’s illegal attack on Iraq. Surely, they could have a little decency not just to default into the “Russia is violating the very principles of the UN” routine?
Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski is especially lively:
We are peaceful democracies who have studiously avoided actively joining your attempt to reconquer Ukraine. But we will not be intimidated.
I have only one request to the Russian government: if another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake, and gets shot down and the wreckage falls on Nato territory, please don’t come here to whine about it.
You have been warned [1]
The Guardian also reports: “He [Sikorski] picks up on Kallas’s point, saying that “if these were accidents, why not immediately acknowledge them and apologise.” This is very odd. As far as the drone incident is concerned Russia said: that there were no plans to attack Poland. As far as the jet incident; Russia has denied that it took place. Concerning the drones, the Russian Ministry of Defence also commented that the range of the drones in question is 700 Km:
The Defence Ministry has unequivocally reaffirmed that the strike did not include any targets in the territory of the Republic of Poland, and that the range of the drones that delivered a strike at the Ukrainian defence industry facilities, which, according to Warsaw, entered Poland’s airspace, is below 700 kilometres. These facts overturn the myths which Poland is spreading again to aggravate the Ukrainian crisis. [2]
I am not sure of the significance of the 700 Km. That would still enable drones to be launched from Russia and reach Poland. However; it does appear that the Russian Ministry of Defence is at the very least saying that if the drones did appear in Poland that was a mistake. They appear though to be saying more; and they may be claiming that their drones did not enter Polish airspace, though, frustratingly, they don’t say that completely clearly. The Russian Ministry of Defence offered to meet Polish officials to discuss the matter. According to Russia’s UN Representative Poland has not “adequately responded”. [3]
As far as the 3 jets in Estonian airspace. the Russian Ministry of Defence was, in fact, very quick to deny that the event happened. The Russian representative at the UN said:
А между тем факты свидетельствуют о том, что 19 сентября три российских истребителя МиГ-31 осуществили плановый перелет из Карелии на аэродром, расположенный в Калининградской области, который выполнялся строго в соответствии с международными правилами использования воздушного пространства. Российские воздушные суда не отклонялись от согласованного маршрута и не пересекали воздушное пространство Эстонии. [3]
Which, in summary, says the jets were flying in international airspace from Karelia (in the Russian mainland) to Kaliningrad, carried out the flight in accordance with international rules and did not penetrate the airspace of Estonia.
The claim of 19 drones over Poland was not supported by NATO, who, I recall, would not say more than 10. Nor would NATO agree with Sikorski that it was an act of deliberate aggression. (Both of these are facts; I am reporting statements made by a NATO spokesperson after the drone episode. However; I can’t now readily locate the reference; all Google wants to give me is endless Sikorski quotes).
Sikorski’s line about “if these were accidents, why not immediately acknowledge them and apologise.”, is odd, because Russia did not say the jet incident was an accident. They have said it didn’t happen. Surely, in matters of this importance Sikorski should be speaking to the facts? Why isn’t he? Those who want to argue that either or both of these events are a ploy to drag NATO into the war might find some ammunition there.
What seems to be positive about the jets incident is that Russia has simply denied it. Had it been some kind of deliberate provocation one imagines they would not have immediately denied it. What is not being reported by the Western media is that at the point where this is said to have happened, in the Gulf of Finland, near Tallinn, the distance between the coast of Estonia and Finland appears to be only about 34 miles. If each side is claiming their 12 mile territorial airspace that leaves a narrow flight corridor of only about 10 miles for the Russian jets to stick to. Given that; one can imagine a simple error, or even different maps, could explain this matter. Estonia is crying out about “only a few kilometres north of Tallinn”. But even if the jets had not violated their airspace, as they think, they would still have been only a few km north of Tallinn.
It is frustrating that the Russians have not fully explained their version of the drone incident. But, if these incidents are considered coolly, there is no need for the hysteria. Of course; Zelensky is using these events to the max, to try to drag NATO and Europe into the war, his only real hope, (and obviously presaging nuclear Armageddon). His Foreign Minister is, rather predictably, saying at the UN: “What’s next? Which other emergency meeting will we have to hold in the coming weeks? Who will be the next country dealing with Russia’s provocations” [1] Sikorski and most of the Baltic countries seem to be agitating for war, which is pretty surprising, because they would, presumably, not fare very well in that war.
I would agree with the UN official, “We can’t risk for this situation to ‘spiral out of control'”. There is a real risk here. It looks like the war party in Europe may be raising the stakes to a level where they have no choice but to go to war.
Notes
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/sep/22/latest-europe-news-russia-estonia-un-united-nations-security-live-latest-updates?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-68d16aa48f0877ddf15320c4#block-68d16aa48f0877ddf15320c4
- https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/2046067/
- https://russiaun.ru/ru/news/unsc_220925