Source: United Nations (video statements)
Remarks to the Security Council by Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, on the Threats to international peace and security.
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Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenča today told the Security Council that a series of recent incidents, including Russian fighter jets reportedly breaching Estonia’s airspace last week, “further underscore the already high tensions that endanger European security,” and stressed that “violations of sovereign country’s airspace are unacceptable.”
Jenča urged all concerned “to act responsibly, to use all available channels and to take immediate steps to de-escalate tensions and prevent further risks to regional security.”
He said, “the world simply cannot afford such danger to spiral out of control and for the devastating war in Ukraine to further escalate and expand.”
On the Ukraine war, Jenča said, “the continuing trend of intensifying widespread attacks once again underscores the need to build on recent initiatives for diplomatic efforts towards peace before the situation reaches even more dangerous levels.”
He called “for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire to pave the way for a just, lasting and comprehensive peace in Ukraine, in line with the UN Charter, international law and relevant UN resolutions.”
Russian Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told the Council that “any events are immediately interpreted through an anti-Russian prism,” and said, “Russia is being branded all sorts of things portrayed as an enemy, not even going to the trouble in principle of using facts or evidence.”
“When these assertions turn out to be false,” Polyanskiy said, “no one even thinks about apologising for spreading such blatant lies.”
The Russian Ambassador said, “our neighbours have now imagined that Russia is at fault for an incursion into Estonian airspace. As always, there is no proof except the rise of phobic hysteria coming from Tallinn, which our Estonian colleague will wax lyrical about a little bit later. As for the facts, the facts prove that on the 19th of September, three Russian MiG 31 fighter jets conducted a planned flight from Karelia to an airbase in Kaliningrad Oblast, carried out in strict accordance with international airspace use rules. The Russian aircraft did not stray from the agreed route, nor did they cross into Estonian airspace. The trajectory of their flight was over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, over three kilometres from the island of Väima. Flight recorder data confirmed this.”
The new United States Ambassador Mike Waltz, in his first Council intervention said the US “stands by our NATO allies in the face of these airspace violations,” and emphasised that “the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Waltz said, “Russia must urgently stop such dangerous behaviour. At a time when President Trump in the United States has been focussed and spent an enormous amount of time and effort to end this horrific war between Russia and Ukraine, we expect Russia to seek ways to de-escalate, not risk expansion.”
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna told the Council that “on 19th September 2025, three armed Russian MiG 31 fighter jets deliberately entered Estonia airspace in violation of our territorial integrity. They remained in our skies for 12 minutes, penetrating up to ten kilometres deep and covering nearly 100km inside our sovereign territory.”
Tsahkna said, “these are the hard facts based on solid evidence, whatever Russia is claiming.”
He said, “violation is crystal clear, and Russia is lying again, as it has been lied before several times. We remember the occupation of Georgia 2008, 2014 Crimea, 2022 aggression against Ukraine started. So, please don’t lie again.”