NATO says no evidence of 'deliberate attack' in deadly Poland incident near Ukraine border
CBC
A missile that hit Poland was probably a stray fired by Ukraine's air defences and not a Russian strike, Poland and NATO said on Wednesday, easing global concern that the war in Ukraine could spill across borders.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization ambassadors held an emergency meeting to discuss the missile that landed on a grains facility on Tuesday, killing two people in Przewodow.
The Brussels gathering was chaired by Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who later told the media there was "no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack." There was no evidence that Russia had launched an offensive attack on a NATO member, he said.
The incident initially raised global alarm that the Ukraine war could spill into neighbouring countries, awakening world leaders who were in Indonesia attending the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. Stoltenberg stressed the incident was "not Ukraine's fault" and put the blame on Russia and President Vladimir Putin for creating "dangerous situations" that could have deadly consequences.
"This is not Ukraine's fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine," Stoltenberg said.
Hours before Stoltenberg spoke, U.S. President Joe Biden had said the trajectories suggested the missile was unlikely to have been fired from Russia.
Poland had considered initiating NATO's Article 4 procedure, but Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki admitted on Wednesday it might not be necessary. President Andrzej Duda, speaking at the same press conference in Warsaw, said there were no signs of an intentional attack on Poland.
"From the information that we and our allies have, it was an S-300 rocket made in the Soviet Union, an old rocket and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side," Duda said. "It is highly probable that it was fired by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defence."
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said NATO should swiftly deploy more air defences on the Polish-Ukrainian border and the rest of the alliance's eastern flank.
"I hope by next year's NATO summit in Vilnius, we will be able to make progress, as the situation confirms it is the right decision and needs swift implementation," Nauseda said.
Ground-based air defence systems such as Raytheon's Patriot units are in short supply in many Western nations, which were reluctant to invest too much money in military capabilities like these after the end of the Cold War.
If it had been determined that Moscow was to blame for the blast, it could have triggered NATO's principle of collective defence known as Article 5, in which an attack on one of the Western alliance's members is deemed an attack on all, starting deliberations on a potential military response.
The Article 4 procedure could be an intermediate step, providing for consultations on what to do next.
The explosion near the Ukrainian border came as Russia unleashed a wave of missiles targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure, attacks that Kyiv said were the heaviest in nearly nine months of war.
