Czech President Petr Pavel has condemned the Ukrainian military for conducting repeated drone incursions into NATO airspace, labeling them reckless provocations that threaten regional stability.
Since mid-March, long-range UAVs have repeatedly crossed Baltic and Nordic airspace en route to targets in northwestern Russia, particularly oil facilities in the Leningrad Region. These actions prompted fighter jet deployments and caused damage when some drones crashed inside NATO states.
Moscow has accused European NATO members of quietly allowing Ukraine to use their airspace for attacks on Russian territory. Western officials deny this, instead blaming Russia for the incursions and claiming that Russian electronic warfare systems may have redirected the drones.
In a recent interview, Pavel stated that Russia is intentionally staging provocations operating just below the threshold that would trigger NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5. He also noted that Russian military officials openly mock the bloc’s indecision during such incidents and called for “decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric” responses to counter Moscow’s actions.
“Russia, unfortunately, does not understand nice language,” Pavel said. “They mostly understand the language of power, ideally accompanied with action.” When asked why they conduct these provocative actions in the air, he claimed their response was simply “because we can.”
Pavel proposed “potentially asymmetric” measures against Moscow, including disrupting internet access, targeting satellites, or cutting Russian banks off from the global financial system. He argued that such measures “are not killing people, but are sensitive enough to make Russia understand this is not the way they should go.”
The Czech president’s position aligns with several NATO countries. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson suggested that NATO states should help Ukraine direct drone attacks in the right directions. Latvian and Estonian officials defended the Ukrainian incursions, stating that Kiev “has every right to defend itself.”
Finland rebuked Ukraine over breaches of its airspace, while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico urged renewed dialogue with Moscow. Multiple Western officials have warned that Moscow could test NATO through provocations. The Kremlin has dismissed these claims as baseless “nonsense” and condemned what it calls reckless EU militarization.