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Russian drone incidents in two NATO countries/ Pompeo: What are we going to do about this?

2025-09-24 14:47:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Russian drone incidents in two NATO countries/ Pompeo: What are we going to do

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has published an opinion piece on Fox News about the presence of Russian drones in two NATO countries and what is expected to happen.

Pompeo's writing

Russian fighter jets recently entered Estonian airspace, a bold incursion just nine days after 19 Russian drones invaded the airspace of Poland, another NATO member. While the Kremlin has denied any deliberate violation of NATO airspace, evidence suggests that both actions were almost certainly deliberate.

These provocations appear to be designed to test NATO for operational and political weakness and to show the world that Vladimir Putin believes he can act with impunity in Ukraine and beyond. Indeed, all of Putin’s recent claims of peace have been belied by his actions: He followed his Alaskan summit with President Trump with the largest airstrikes on Ukraine of last year and ignored the president’s proposed ceasefire deadline.

As NATO continues its discussions on a coordinated response to the Polish incident and now Estonia, a unified, decisive and forceful rebuke from the entire alliance is of paramount importance. The Western alliance failed to deter Russia in 2014 and again in 2022; as Putin now takes the war even further into European territory, we cannot afford to show any weakness.

The US and our European allies must show Putin that his acts of aggression will not stand and that for every escalation and provocation, the costs to him alone will multiply.

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NATO is already taking steps to bolster the defenses of its eastern flank — a helpful measure, but only part of the equation. The proposed withdrawal of American military support from the Baltic states would send a disastrous signal to the Kremlin, especially given the intrusion into Estonian airspace.

Congress and the Trump administration must work together to ensure that the U.S. military presence in the Baltic states on the front lines remains in place as a key component of NATO’s defense architecture. America and our allies in Europe must take additional steps to strengthen the defense capabilities of NATO’s eastern border, move forward with strong security guarantees for Ukraine, and provide Kiev with the defensive and offensive weapons it needs to keep Russia in check.

We should also make it clear that Russia has blocked any possibility of peace talks for the foreseeable future. President Donald Trump has made a good faith effort to facilitate negotiations, but Putin has made it clear that he has no interest in peace. Continuing to be content with the fiction that he wants what we want—or worse, that there is some kind of equivalence between Russia as a belligerent and Ukraine, a victim of Russian aggression, is something that buys Putin time and influence.

Second, as President Trump has made clear, Europe must stop buying Russian oil and gas, immediately. It is absurd that after more than three years, some European countries continue to provide Russia with the revenue it needs to wage this brutal war on their continent. Moreover, with President Trump leading America back to energy dominance, Europe will have alternative suppliers to turn to, avoiding rising prices while withholding precious funds for Putin’s war effort.

The president is right to push for a coordinated campaign of financial pressure on Russia and its enablers. This should include sanctioning Chinese banks that fuel the Kremlin’s war machine, imposing devastating tariffs, and secondary sanctions on countries that are keeping the Kremlin afloat through their purchases of oil, gas, and uranium. Congress should work to pass the bipartisan bill introduced by Senators Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., which includes the measures outlined above, as well as expanded restrictions on Russian financial entities and transactions, and the Russian energy sector.

President Trump understands that peace can only be secured through strength. That is why he pushed Europe to take greater responsibility for its own security in both his first and second administrations. As a former Secretary of State, I know from experience that this insistence was not always welcomed – but as we all know, it turned out to be correct. The President’s willingness to have those tough conversations with our European allies has resulted in the historic commitment of 5% of GDP defense spending for NATO members, putting the alliance back on track to restore deterrence and restore Europe’s territorial integrity.

America must see this project through to the end. It is essential to Europe's security, and to America's core interests, that we do this properly - and that can only be done by imposing serious costs on Russia and showing Putin that his provocations have only strengthened the NATO alliance./ CNA, translated by Fox News