Rubio: Russian planes won't be shot down if they don't attack

Secretary of State of the United States Marco Rubio said that Russian planes violating NATO airspace will not be shot down unless they attack. He said this in an interview with CBS News, transmits U.S. Department of State.

Asked whether the United States is ready to participate in shooting down Russian planes if they violate airspace, Rubio said that he did not think "anyone has talked about shooting down Russian planes if they don't attack."

"I think you have seen that NATO is responding to these incursions in the same way that we respond to them all the time. When they enter your airspace or your defense zone, you go up and intercept them. And that's what NATO has done, and that's what NATO will continue to do," Rubio said.

During this interview, he also saidthe US will work with its allies to defend "every inch of NATO territory".

• on September 19, Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace near Tallinn. In total, they flew over Estonia about 12 minutes.
• On the same day russian fighters violated the security zone of the Polish company Petrobaltic's drilling platform in the Baltic Sea. More than a week before that two dozen Russian UAVs violated Polish airspace.
• on September 22, Tusk said that Poland will bring down objects that clearly violate its airspace. British Foreign Secretary to the UN declared its readiness to to repel offending aircraft.
• On the same day, President Donald Trump announced that he would help Poland and the Baltic states in case of escalation by Russia.