NATO braces for crisis over report of Russian missiles hitting Poland
Joel Gehrke
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s team refused to contemplate the invocation of NATO’s Article 5 following reports that Russian missiles landed in Poland as the trans-Atlantic alliance awaits further information from Warsaw.
“We are still taking the important time to figure out the exact facts,” State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in a Tuesday briefing. “Poland is an important ally and partner, and, like I said, we are working with them to determine what happened and assess next steps as well.”
RUSSIA FLOATS DISSOLUTION OF UNITED NATIONS OVER UKRAINE REPARATIONS RESOLUTION
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki “urgently convened” a meeting of the Polish national security and defense council on Tuesday following reports that Russian missiles landed in a Polish border town and killed two people. Moscow responded by accusing Polish officials of faking the incident “in order to escalate the situation,” even as initial Western assessments suggest that the Russian missiles landed in Poland by accident.
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“Many roads lead [to the conclusion that they] probably were Russian missiles, most likely hit by [Ukrainian] air defense and thus changed trajectory; or [alternatively they] were old Russian missiles that were not very precise,” a senior Baltic official told the Washington Examiner. “Most likely, Poland was not hit intentionally. Nevertheless, it must have very serious consequences on Russia (if proved that the missiles came from Russia). The situation is very concerning.”