Eleanor Corney
A missile landed outside of the rural Polish village of Przewodów on 15 November 2022. It stood approximately four miles from the Ukrainian border. The event occurred whilst Russia launched its biggest wave of missiles on Ukraine in more than a month.
Missile launch
This marks the first time that a NATO country has been hit directly during the nine-month conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The circumstances surrounding the incident remain unclear, and it is not known who fired the missile. However, the Polish Foreign Ministry has described it as “Russian-made.”
“Ukraine has deployed Russian-made missiles as part of its air defence system.”
Despite this, both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used Russian-made missiles during the conflict. Ukraine has deployed Russian-made missiles as part of its air defense system.
The world’s response
US President Joe Biden has claimed that preliminary information suggested it was “unlikely” that the missile was fired from Russia. However, he was unable to say conclusively until the investigation was complete.
Following Biden’s statement, a NATO military official uncovered unknown information. Specifically, the missile had been tracked by an alliance aircraft flying above Poland at the time of the blast.
During an address from the Bureau of National Security in Warsaw, Polish President Andrzej Duda said the missile was “most likely” made in Russia.
“Duda said that the US would send experts to investigate the site of the attack as part of a joint operation.”
In his address, Duda said that the US would send experts to investigate the site of the attack as part of a joint operation.
Additionally, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has claimed that the strike in Poland “would not have happened without Russia’s horrific missile attacks against Ukraine.”
Despite this, The Kremlin has denied any involvement in the explosion. It claimed that Polish media was creating “a deliberate provocation in order to escalate the situation.” Furthermore, the Russian mission at the UN said that the incident in Poland is trying to provoke a direct clash between NATO and Russia.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki claimed that the evidence suggests the missile attack was a one-off. He continued by saying that there is no evidence of further missile strikes.
However, Morawiecki has said that Poland will increase its military readiness. They are also contemplating whether to activate Article 4 of the NATO treaty.
*Disclaimer: investigations are ongoing at this stage. This article is intended to inform, not speculate.
Photo by Maciej Ruminkiewicz on Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.
