DailyExpertNews
—
Poland has summoned the country’s Russian ambassador after concluding that a Russian-made missile fell into its territory on Tuesday, killing two people near the Ukrainian border.
In the aftermath of the incident, the NATO member will increase the combat readiness of some troops and is considering activating Article 4 of the NATO treaty on the military alliance, officials said.
“At 3:40 PM [local time] in the village of Przewodów in Hrubieszów poviat in Lubelskie Voivodeship, a Russian-made rocket fell, killing two citizens of the Republic of Poland,” Lukasz Jasina, a spokesman for the Polish foreign ministry, said in a statement.
It landed on Polish soil at about the same time Russia launched its biggest wave of rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.
The Russian Defense Ministry previously denied attacking the border. It called reports from Polish media, which were the first to report the deaths, “a deliberate provocation to escalate the situation,” a brief statement late Tuesday said.
“The statements made by the Polish media and officials about the alleged fall of ‘Russian’ missiles in the area of the Przewodow settlement is a deliberate provocation to escalate the situation,” it said, adding that “there were no attacks. shot at targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border.”
It added that the photos of wreckage published by the Polish media “of the crime scene in the village of Przewodow have nothing to do with Russian weapons.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told DailyExpertNews he had no information about an explosion in Poland.
At the site of the explosion in eastern Poland’s Hrubieszów district, local media showed an image of a deep impact and an overturned agricultural vehicle, near the town of Przewodow, about six kilometers west of the Ukrainian border. DailyExpertNews cannot independently confirm the photos.
Video taken by a resident, geolocated and confirmed by DailyExpertNews, shows a large plume of smoke in the center of the village.
A local resident told DailyExpertNews they heard a terrifying “woosh” as the missile flew over the city. A janitor at a local school said the force of the blast shook classroom windows about 200 yards from the school gate.
In response to initial reports of the deaths, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki convened the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defense to discuss the incident, a government spokesman said.
It remains unclear where the missile came from and why it fell in Poland.
Polish President Andrzej Duda said in a speech on Tuesday that Poland does not know who fired the missile, noting that the missile was “most likely produced in Russia”.
“We are working calmly and in a very calm manner,” Duda said during a speech from the National Security Bureau in Warsaw, urging calm and assuring the country of the support of NATO allies.
The United States is sending experts to investigate the site and the ongoing investigations will be a joint operation, Duda said.
After speaking with Polish President Andrzej Duda about the explosion, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday it was “important that all the facts be established”.
“I have offered my condolences for the loss of life. NATO is monitoring the situation and Allies are in close consultation. It is important that all the facts be established,” Stoltenberg said in a message on Twitter.
NATO allies expressed concern at the incident. Some were cautious in their statements, neither speculating nor confirming what caused the explosion.
US President Joe Biden spoke to his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda where he “reaffirmed the ironclad commitment of the United States to NATO,” according to a reading of the call.
Senior White House officials said they have no confirmation of a missile strike in Poland, but US officials are currently trying to find out exactly what happened.
French President Emmanuel Macron called for talks at the G20 summit on Wednesday, which Biden is attending, following reports of the incident in Poland, an Elysee Palace spokesperson said on Tuesday.
A French defense source told DailyExpertNews that France was “extremely cautious” and that officials would not comment until they could analyze “all available information”.
Speaking to Duda on Tuesday, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated the UK’s “solidarity with Poland and expressed its condolences to the victims”.
The Baltic NATO states were sharper in their statements, emphasizing a willingness to defend NATO territory.
Estonia called the news “most concerning,” according to a Twitter post from the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Estonia is ready to defend every inch of NATO territory,” it added.
Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks blamed Russia, even though at the time there was no confirmation from Polish authorities that a Russian missile had landed on their territory.
“Condolences to our Polish comrades-in-arms. The criminal Russian regime fired missiles that not only targeted Ukrainian citizens, but also landed on NATO territory in Poland. Latvia fully stands with Polish friends and condemns this crime,” Pabriks wrote.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose country is not a NATO member, also pointed the finger at Moscow. “Hitting NATO territory with missiles is a Russian attack on collective security. This is a very significant escalation, we must act,” he said.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a group of 30 North American and European countries. According to NATO, its purpose is “to ensure the freedom and security of its members by political and military means”.
The alliance was formed in 1949 in response to the outbreak of the Cold War. The original goal was to protect the West from the threat of the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Cold War, many former Soviet countries have joined NATO, much to Putin’s chagrin.
Article 4, which Poland is considering, is a consultation method that allows members to submit an issue, usually a security issue, of concern to them to the North Atlantic Council, the alliance’s decision-making body, for discussion.
“The Parties shall consult when, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened,” the article states.
The best-known aspect of the alliance is Article 5 of the treaty, which, if invoked, means that “an attack against one ally shall be regarded as an attack against all allies”. It has only been invoked once, in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States.
However, the alliance can take collective defense measures without invoking Article 5 – and has done so in light of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long complained that NATO has expanded its borders over time by admitting Eastern European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union — meaning Russia now shares a land border with Russia’s the world’s largest military alliance, diminishing its geopolitical power in what was once Moscow’s sphere of influence.
As late as February, he demanded that NATO scale back to its 1997 borders before the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the last two of which border Russia, join the alliance.
