Global alert: Russian-made missiles, says Poland – Unlikely to have been launched by Russia, says Biden

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Later today the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, will preside over an “extraordinary meeting” of the permanent representatives of the member states of the Atlantic alliance.

By Athena Papakosta

Intense diplomatic activity has been recorded in recent hours, as leaders around the world react to the missile strike on Tuesday in southeastern Poland in the wake of the worst missile attacks on the same day in Ukraine.

Two dead

Missiles hit the village of Presvodow, 4 miles (6.4 km) north of Ukraine early Tuesday afternoon. The explosion killed two Polish citizens. The West has not yet confirmed that these are “stray” Russian missiles and continues to investigate the incident.

Russia denies

“No strikes against targets on the Ukrainian-Polish border were carried out by Russian means of destruction,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that the reports were “a deliberate provocation aimed at further escalation.”

“The missile is of Russian manufacture,” says Poland

Poland’s foreign ministry announced that a Russian-made missile fell on Polish soil near the border with Ukraine at 03:40 p.m. on Tuesday in the village of Presvodow, killing two Polish citizens.

The representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland added that the Russian ambassador to the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs was summoned. In these announcements from the Polish side, no mention is made of who launched the missile. Earlier, the representative of the Polish government said that Warsaw is increasing the level of readiness of part of its armed forces.

For his part, the Polish president, Andrei Duda he was more circumspect about the origin of the missile, saying Polish authorities do not know for sure who launched it or where it was manufactured. He also emphasized that “he was probably Russian” adding that this remains to be proven.

Article 4

The Polish Prime Minister gave a press conference, Mateusz Morawiecki and confirmed initial reports by Reuters news agency that Warsaw was considering asking for consultations in NATO under Article 4 of the Alliance’s founding treaty, according to which when an Alliance Member State considers itself threatened it may ask its partners to enter into consultations to consider the seriousness of the threat and how it can be countered.

In addition, Mr. Morawiecki asked Polish citizens to remain calm stressing that “we must be ready to face fake news and propaganda attempts.” It is worth underlining that Warsaw has not – so far – spoken of an attack.

What will NATO do?

“NATO is monitoring the situation and Allies are consulting closely. It is important to document all the facts,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who had a telephone conversation with Polish President Andrzej Duda to whom he expressed his condolences for the loss of life.

Later today, Jens Stoltenberg will preside over an “extraordinary meeting” of the permanent representatives of the Member States of the Atlantic alliance.

And NATO has not spoken of an attack but of a “tragic incident”.

Zelensky: “Russian missiles hit Poland”

Without offering any evidence, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian missiles had hit Poland, adding that this was a “significant escalation of the conflict”. He also called for “action” underlining that Ukraine is “ready to provide all necessary support.”

He even emphasized that the Ukrainian side had warned “a long time ago that Russian actions will not be limited to Ukraine.”

What is Biden saying?

“I will make sure we find out exactly what happened. Then we’ll be able to figure out our next step,” said the US president after the G7 emergency meeting behind closed doors in Bali, Indonesia, which was attended in addition to the US, France, Germany, the UK, Italy , Canada and Japan. Also present were the leaders of Spain, the Netherlands and the president of the European Council, Charles Michel.

The US president, responding to a journalist’s question, stated that he considers it unlikely that the missile was launched by Russia and this, he explained, was due to its trajectory. Nevertheless, he added that “we will see” since the investigation is in full swing.

White House and Pentagon: We’re looking. We do not confirm

The White House by early morning was unable to confirm reports that these were Russian missiles, saying it was working with the Polish government to gather more information, while the Pentagon also noted it was looking into the matter further.

EU concern

Concerned, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, appeared, expressing her condolences and “the strongest message of support and solidarity to Poland and our Ukrainian friends,” as she said. For his part, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, said he was shocked and called the European leaders participating in the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, to an emergency coordination meeting.

Alert in the Baltic States

Latvia, which calls for the activation of Article 4, spoke of a crime, while Estonia and Lithuania declared that they were ready to defend every inch of NATO territory.

Because what happened in Poland matters

Poland is a member of NATO, the strictly defensive military alliance that supports Ukraine. Countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany and the USA participate in the Atlantic alliance. If it is verified that “stray” Russian missiles hit Polish soil, it will be Russia’s first strike on NATO soil since the start of the War in Ukraine on February 24. In the event that it is verified that Moscow is responsible for the missile strike, then Article 5 may be activated, according to which an attack against any State – Member of the Alliance is perceived as an attack against all.

In the meantime…

At least 85 Russian missiles struck Ukraine on Tuesday, abruptly interrupting the celebratory mood in the country following the humiliating withdrawal of Russian troops from Kherson a few days earlier.

Ukraine’s energy infrastructure is the target

Russia has hit Ukraine’s energy infrastructure again with the only difference being that this time it was the heaviest wave of Russian missile attacks against Ukrainian soil – from east to west – plunging the country into darkness. Even neighboring Moldova was hit, with massive blackouts after Russian strikes knocked out a major power plant.

As Moscow fired at least 85 cruise missiles, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was boarding a plane to depart from the G20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, where Volodymyr Zelensky presented a “decadal” for peace in Ukraine, where the Sergey Lavrov himself accused Kyiv of asking for solutions while not coming to the negotiating table.

Ukraine was already struggling with energy after Moscow repeatedly hit its energy infrastructure in recent weeks. But this time the barrage of cruise missiles against the country’s energy facilities is the biggest since Russia’s war in Ukraine began.

Putin’s revenge for Kherson

Putin seems furious. Kherson, the first and only regional Ukrainian capital he held has now been recaptured by the Ukrainians. This new barrage of attacks on infrastructure in Kiev and other major Ukrainian cities comes at a time when Russia is still losing ground.

The strikes occurred shortly before sunset, forcing the Ukrainians to race against time to assess the extent of the damage and attempt to repair the damage before dark.

The inhabitants of the country returned to the shelters. The situation in Kyiv is described as difficult by the Ukrainian authorities. The same information speaks of at least one dead person.

Russia has been dismantling Ukrainian energy infrastructure for a month with the clear aim of freezing and darkening Ukrainian morale ahead of winter. He chooses the current moment when he has lost Kherson and while the leaders of the 20 most powerful economies are discussing in Bali the final draft conclusions which are expected today. Already, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba, was asking early yesterday Tuesday to arrive at a “responsible” answer.

“We are working hard to fix the problems. We will succeed,” said the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky. “These attacks will not demoralize Ukrainians. We will be by Ukraine’s side for as long as it takes,” said the American Foreign Minister, Anthony Blinken.

At the same time, Moldova was also faced with power outages. The country’s foreign minister asked Moscow to “stop the destruction here and now” and underlined that “every bomb that falls in Ukraine also affects Moldova.”

The Kremlin, however, does not listen to anyone when it comes to Ukraine except Vladimir Putin who, as long as he continues to count losses on the front, will become more and more aggressive towards Ukraine. At least these nine months of war have proven that.

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