CaliToday (22/9/2025): As NATO allies weigh their response to a series of recent Russian airspace violations, a prominent Member of Parliament from Germany’s ruling coalition has raised the prospect of shooting down Russian fighter jets over the alliance's territory.
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| Juergen Hardt, member of the German Bundestag, speaks during a plenary session. Christophe Gateau/dpa |
Jürgen Hardt, the foreign policy spokesperson for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc in the Bundestag, argued that a more forceful and unambiguous response is needed to deter Russian aggression.
"The Kremlin needs a clear stop signal," Hardt stated in a piece published by the RND media group on Sunday.
He contended that Russia is deliberately testing the alliance’s resolve and that only a credible military threat will halt the provocations.
"These provocations and tests by Russia will only stop if we react clearly to all military border violations," Hardt emphasized. He argued that a clear message must be sent to Moscow that "any violation of a military border will have consequences, including the shooting down of a Russian fighter jet over NATO territory."
The conservative politician warned that a failure to act decisively would invite further escalation based on what he described as Russia's "logic of war."
"Otherwise, Russia's logic of war will continue to escalate. Now it's airspace violations, soon it will be bombing individual targets, and then Russian soldiers will come," Hardt warned.
His call for a harder line comes in the immediate aftermath of several serious incidents on NATO's eastern flank. NATO allies are scheduled to hold consultations next week after Estonia reported that three Russian fighter jets had violated its airspace on Friday.
This follows an unprecedented event a week prior, when Poland and allied forces shot down Russian drones over NATO territory for the first time after at least 19 of the unmanned aircraft breached Polish airspace.
The back-to-back incursions have sparked a high-stakes debate within the alliance on how to craft a response that is strong enough to re-establish deterrence without triggering a direct, full-scale conflict with a nuclear-armed Russia. While not official government policy, Hardt's provocative proposal signals a hardening of attitudes within a key NATO member state and dramatically raises the stakes in that ongoing debate.
