Pilot-instructor: NATO Will Start Destroying Russian Planes

• 24.09.2025, 16:42

It's the best option.

US President Donald Trump has said that NATO should shoot down Russian planes when they fly into the territory of Alliance countries.

Do we expect Russian aircraft to come under attack during provocations? The website Charter97.org talked about it with the colonel of the AFU in reserve, military expert and flight instructor Roman Svitan:

- I will start with the fact that there is so-called military logic. The approach of any military aircraft is regarded as an attack. I emphasize, not as a provocation, but an attack. If a civilian airplane comes in, it may get lost, lose its bearings, its equipment and radio communications may fail. It is subject to certain ICAO laws on its withdrawal to the airfield, on its interception and so on.

Warplanes are a priori a threat and an invasion. Especially in times of hostilities by some countries or possible threat. Any military aircraft should be destroyed. In terms of military logic, Trump is correct. Erdogan shot down at one time. After all, it is a threat in its purest form.

The provocation can be a civilian airplane. A drone, an airplane, a missile is a threat that must be destroyed.

I think that Russian airplanes will start to be destroyed. The destruction of drones has already begun. Drones have been shot down over the territory of a NATO country. Four drones, but they were shot down. Weapons were used on them.

The next step is the destruction of military aircraft. But after a warning. What needs to be done? NATO countries should raise the degree of combat readiness by one unit - from constant to heightened, give a command to destroy any aircraft that goes without the transponder of the civilian board turned on. And warn the Russians that there will be such actions. Because everyone has been put on high alert. From the point of view of international law, everything will be correct.

That is, it is easy to destroy a plane in the air with a missile. You don't have to fly up to it, you don't have to shoot it from a cannon. The missile will work, fulfill its task. Not one, so two. After one Russian aircraft worth tens of millions of dollars crashes, the Russians will not want to test their fate. This is the best option.

- Should we expect a response if the Europeans shoot down a Russian plane on their territory?

- They will make some kind of protest. They will stamp their feet, but they will do nothing.

- The US is lifting sanctions against Belavia. Is there a danger that spare parts will go to Russia? Will this decision save Russian aviation?

- One hundred percent that the iron will go there. If we talk about whether it will help Russian aviation, not much. Everything will depend on how much spare parts will go to Russia. How many of them there will be.