WAR IN UKRAINE. Two Russian missiles exploded on Polish soil on Tuesday, November 15. An emergency meeting is organized by the Polish Security Council. Russia has denied this information. How will NATO react?
[Mis à jour le 15 novembre 2022 à 23h00] According to a senior US intelligence official, two Russian missiles reportedly hit Poland and killed two people, reports Associated Press, this Tuesday evening, November 15, 2022. For his part, the American spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense assured: “We have no elements at this stage to confirm this information and we are examining it further.” In addition, Mateusz Morawiecki, Polish Prime Minister, called an emergency meeting of the Council for National Security and Defense Affairs, “in connection with the crisis”. It therefore seems that the Polish Prime Minister takes this information very seriously. “Any information that is presented to the committee will then be disseminated, if possible, as widely as possible to the public. I urge you not to publish any unconfirmed information until then,” government spokesman Piotr Müller said on Twitter. Polish. Already, the Poland confirmed that two people died in an explosion in the east of the country. In addition, the government spokesman said that investigations would be carried out on the spot and should last “all night”.
Piotr Müller also said that Poland was going to “verify the use of Article 4 of the Atlantic Alliance”. Indeed, Poland is part of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. According to Article 4 of the Treaty, “the parties [membres de l’alliance] shall consult each other whenever, in the opinion of either of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of one of the parties will be threatened”.
Moreover, this incident could fall under the scope of theitem 5 of this treaty and therefore contribute to an escalation of the conflict. By signing the NATO treaty, members pledged to protect each other, based on the immutable principle of collective defence. In practice, if a country is attacked, NATO considers that all the countries of the Alliance are. “If Russia confirmed the strike in Poland, we are entering into something else. It is Article 5 of NATO. But we are here in speculation”, reacted the former Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Védrine, on the LCI antenna.
Investigations by NATO are underway to determine the origin of these missiles. For its part, Russia reacted and qualified as “provocations” the information according to which two of their missiles would have hit Poland. Thus, on his Telegram account, the Russian Minister of Defense indicated: “The statements of the Polish media and officials on the alleged fall of “Russian” missiles in the Przewodow area are a deliberate provocation aimed at aggravating the situation.”
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted in the evening: “Following the explosions which occurred in Poland, the President of the Republic asked to carry out the necessary checks in order to establish the facts in close consultation with Poland and its allies in within NATO. France assures Poland of its solidarity.”
The reactions of other European diplomats were not long in coming. “Not only did the Russian missiles apparently hit Poland, and thus NATO territory, but they also caused fatalities. […] The Kremlin and its occupants must explain themselves immediately”, thus assured Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the president of the defense committee of the Bundestag. For her part, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian president, judges that “it is a Russian missile attack against collective security! It’s a very significant escalation.”
Article 5 is the one concerning the collective defense of the member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. According to this article, “the parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them occurring in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack directed against all parties, and accordingly they agree that, if such an attack occurs, each of them, in the exercise of the right of self-defence, individual or collective, recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the party or parties thus attacked by taking immediately, individually and in agreement with the other parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and ensure security in the North Atlantic region”. This is why, before taking any decision, NATO has decided to launch, this Tuesday evening, November 15, 2022, an investigation to determine the nature of the missiles that exploded on Polish soil. If the Russian origin were confirmed, we should therefore expect a reaction from the member countries of this Alliance.