President Vladimir V. Putin on Thursday said that Russia had no plans to invade NATO countries, amid alarm over confirmed and suspected Russian drone incursions from Poland to Denmark in recent weeks.
After the airspace violations, some European leaders have said that the continent has entered its most perilous moment in decades. NATO nations are moving to beef up aerial defenses that they believe Russia has been probing for weaknesses.
Speaking at an international relations conference in Russia’s southwest, Mr. Putin lashed out at “European elites” for “whipping up the hysteria” about the “Russian threat.”
“It looks as if a war with the Russians is just around the corner: They keep repeating this mantra over and over again,” he said in televised remarks.
“This is something impossible to believe,” Mr. Putin added. “I’d like to tell them: Calm down, sleep tight and, finally, deal with your own issues.” Later, he insisted that Moscow had “no aggressive intentions regarding other countries.”
More than three years ago, as Russia massed troops near the border with Ukraine, Mr. Putin denied that he was planning an invasion. On Thursday, he painted NATO countries as the aggressors, suggesting that their support for Kyiv meant that the Western alliance was at war with Russia.
Mr. Putin’s remarks followed weeks of jitters in Europe over whether the continent was prepared for a possible escalation in Russian aggression. Worries soared after an incursion by more than 20 Russian drones over Poland in early September. In response to that violation, NATO scrambled fighter jets and engaged enemy targets in its airspace for the first time in history.
Poland’s leader called the incursion — a dangerous spillover from the war in neighboring Ukraine — a “large-scale provocation,” and a majority of U.N. Security Council members condemned Russia for it. Moscow said that the drones had mistakenly flown over Poland, a claim that was rejected by European leaders.
A week later, Russian fighter jets entered the airspace of Estonia for an unusually long 12 minutes, in what that country’s foreign minister called an “unprecedentedly brazen” intrusion.
Last week, fears spread to Scandinavia when Denmark and Norway had to shut down airports over unexplained drone activity. The authorities have suggested that Russia was behind the overflights, though Mr. Putin on Thursday denied that his country had been involved.
In his remarks at the conference, Mr. Putin sought to portray the growing concerns in Europe as unfounded and said that Germany and other nations were increasing the risk of conflict by “militarizing Europe.” If Europe continues this path, he said, Russia will have to offer a “convincing response.”
As Mr. Putin shows no sign that he is ready to end the fight in Ukraine, European leaders have seemed to be losing hope in the possibility of a negotiated solution. President Trump has voiced increasing frustration, saying recently that Russia has been “fighting aimlessly” in Ukraine and that the Russian military is a “paper tiger.”
Mr. Putin has tried to avoid a rupture with Mr. Trump even as he has rebuffed his demands to end the war. On Thursday, the Russian leader stopped short of criticizing Mr. Trump, instead turning his ire to NATO.
“If we are a paper tiger, then what is NATO about?” Mr. Putin said, once again framing the war in Ukraine as a broader battle against an encroaching NATO.
“All of NATO’s members are fighting against us,” he added. “They are not even hiding it now.”
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