328. The New Red Line: When Will NATO Shoot Down a Russian Jet?
Battleground
Goalhanger
4.5 • 820 Ratings
🗓️ 26 September 2025
⏱️ 39 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Battleground, Saul David and Roger Moorhouse dissect a week of Russian provocation and a dramatic political shift from the US President.
Is Putin's aggressive brinkmanship about to backfire? After three MiG-31 jets violated Estonian airspace and a major drone incursion grounded flights at Copenhagen Airport, NATO allies are drawing a line in the sand. The hosts break down the fallout from Estonia invoking Article 4, the emergency UN Security Council session, and the stark pledge from the Polish foreign minister to shoot down future invaders of NATO skies.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump executes a stunning U-turn, branding Russia a 'paper tiger' and urging Ukraine to reclaim all its lost territory—a complete reversal of his previous calls for territorial concession.
Also in this episode:
Kremlin Nepotism: We examine reports that an increasingly paranoid Putin has appointed his cousin, Anna Tsivileva, as a deputy defence minister to root out corruption and disloyalty in the defence ministry.
Nuclear Sabre-Rattling: Putin attempts to "throw Trump a bone" with a conditional offer to adhere to the New START treaty for one year following its 2026 expiry.
Listeners' Questions: We tackle your queries on: the West's slow adoption of drone warfare lessons; the long-term demographic fallout of the war on both Russia and Ukraine: and more.
Join us as we analyse the week's most dangerous escalations and what they mean for the future of the conflict.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to the Battleground podcast with me Saul David and Roger Morehouse. |
| 0:18.1 | Well, it's been another week of Russian provocation for NATO, with three |
| 0:21.5 | MiG-31 jets violating Estonian airspace for 12 minutes last Friday before being forced to |
| 0:27.5 | withdraw, and a drone incursion at Denmark's Copenhagen Airport, forcing dozens of flights to be |
| 0:33.3 | diverted and cancelled on Monday. While she didn't directly accuse Russia, Demox Prime Minister |
| 0:39.0 | Mehta Fredrickson said the attack was linked to recent Russian drone incursions in Poland and Romania. |
| 0:45.1 | So we have to ask, will all this brinkmanship ultimately back far on Putin? It seems that way |
| 0:50.8 | as European allies vowed to shoot down any Russian aircraft that violate |
| 0:54.5 | their airspace in the future, and US President Donald Trump called Russia a paper tiger |
| 1:00.0 | and urged Ukraine to take back all of its lost land. |
| 1:04.1 | If another missile or aircraft enters our space without permission, deliberately or by mistake |
| 1:08.8 | and get shot down, and the wreckage falls on NATO territory, |
| 1:12.7 | please don't come here to whine about it. Poland's foreign minister, Radoslav Sikorski, |
| 1:17.6 | told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Monday that was called |
| 1:22.6 | to discuss a Russian airspace incursion over Estonia. The threat was echoed at the emergency UN session by |
| 1:29.3 | British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, who said, these latest acts are dangerous and reckless. |
| 1:35.2 | We stand ready to take all steps necessary to defend NATO's skies and NATO's territory. |
| 1:40.5 | If we need to confront planes operating in NATO airspace without permission, we will. |
| 1:45.3 | Yes, and there's a surprising level of support for this rather hardline position from the United |
| 1:50.0 | States in the shape of Mike Waltz, the new US ambassador to the UN, who told the meeting, |
| 1:56.2 | the United States and our allies will defend every inch of NATO territory. |
| 2:00.7 | Russia must urgently stop such |
... |
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