He added: “I don’t love it – I don’t like when that happens.” The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) noted that Russia is “intensifying its efforts to test NATO’s defensive capabilities and resolve by violating NATO members’ safety zones in the air domain”.
Amid his stark warning to the Kremlin, Mr Healey also wrote in the Mail on Sunday: “Britain will not be cowed.”
He then invoked the RAF’s vanquishing of the Luftwaffe in 1940, adding: “This weekend, as we honour the heroism of the Battle of Britain generation, it is especially poignant that RAF pilots and crew are once again standing shoulder to shoulder with Poland in defence of our shared security – making us secure at home and strong abroad.”
The ISW added that Polish Border Guards reported on September 19 that two Russian fighter jets performed a low altitude pass over the Polish Lotos Petrobaltic oil and gas drilling platform in the Baltic Sea “in direct violation of the platform’s safety zone”.
Experts said: “ISW continues to assess that Russia is deliberately testing the limits of NATO’s capabilities with various air incursions in an effort to gather data on the alliance’s response measures and political will that Russia may then apply to potential conflicts against NATO.”
