One of the missing missiles hit a tractor and caused a crater in the agricultural facilities. /
NATO will meet urgently today to discuss the incident, in which two people died and that kyiv and the Baltic countries attribute to Russia.
The war crossed the borders of Ukraine last night. For the first time since the Russian Army began the invasion, its weapons would have affected a third country, also belonging to NATO. Apparently they did it accidentally, but at least two people lost their lives in the Polish town of Przewodow, in the province of Lublin, a few kilometers from the border with Ukraine, after the possible impact of two stray rockets, according to the local station Radio ZET when mentioning unofficial information. The missiles presumably destroyed an agricultural facility. Agents of the Police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Polish Army were already at the scene of the events at the close of this edition.
The spokesman for the United States Department of Defense, Pat Ryder, reported that, at the moment, Washington did not have information linking Russia to the impact of these projectiles, according to CNN. Instead, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia immediately blamed Moscow. “Firing missiles into NATO territory is a Russian attack on collective security. It is a very significant climb. We must act,” Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said. The explosions occurred during one of the most intense bombardments carried out by the Russian Army against Ukraine.
The Prime Minister of Poland, Mateusz Morawiecki, immediately and extraordinary convened the National Security and Defense Committee of the Council of Ministers, according to the government spokesman, Piotr Muller, on Twitter. This would be the first direct hit received by a member country of the Atlantic Alliance since the outbreak of the war at the end of February. During the NATO summit in Madrid, the allies reaffirmed their “unwavering” commitment to the collective defense of all Alliance territories if attacked. However, military experts specified last night that the situation would have two different readings depending on whether it is a deliberate or accidental attack, as would appear in this case in which some sources speak of two out-of-control missiles.
NATO will meet today urgently at ambassadorial level to discuss the incident. A diplomat quoted by the Reuters agency maintained late at night that the Alliance will act “with caution” and that it needs time to determine exactly how the incident happened. NATO has moved quickly despite Poland having so far evaded requesting the activation of Article 4 of the Treaty, which allows allies to raise any issue of concern, especially regarding security, to the Alliance Council for discussion. . The Polish government spokesman announced that Warsaw, which for the moment has refrained from blaming Moscow for the explosions, has put its Armed Forces on alert so that they can be deployed as soon as possible.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak arrives at the National Security Office headquarters in Warsaw. /
The Russian Defense Ministry called the accusations about his involvement in the Przewodow incident “deliberate provocation”, according to the TASS agency. Moscow assured that the Army did not carry out attacks yesterday near the Polish-Ukrainian border, at the same time that it stressed that the photographs of the remains of missiles show that it is not the type of weapon used by its troops.
mass bombing
The leaders of the European Union stood in solidarity with Poland. Ursula Von der Leyen, president of the Community Executive, was “alarmed” by the news while the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, claimed to be “in permanent contact” with the Polish authorities. For his part, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Rinsalu expressed his “greatest concern” and assured that the country “is ready to defend every inch of NATO territory.” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda also noted that “NATO territory must be defended.”
The incident occurred on a day in which Russia launched a new wave of attacks on the western territory of Ukraine. The visit of the president, Volodímir Zelenski, to Kherson on Monday; the advance of his army towards the Crimea; kyiv’s refusal to sign a peace agreement with Moscow until all the occupied territories are liberated; or the reproaches against the Kremlin during the G-20 summit in Bali could be behind the unleashing of the largest bombardment since the beginning of the war against dozens of cities.
A significant part of the hundred missiles devastated energy infrastructures throughout the country, despite the fact that quite a few were shot down by anti-aircraft artillery. The spokesman for the kyiv Air Force, Yuri Ignat, assured that the Russians “have surpassed what they did on October 10, when they fired 84 rockets.”
Zelenski proposes a decalogue for peace
By videoconference, and dressed in his usual military green shirt, the President of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelenski, also spoke yesterday at the G-20 summit addressing a plenary session of leaders. Among them was Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who had to stay to listen to him because the Indonesian presidency had insisted that no one leave the sessions. In July, during the meeting of the foreign ministers, also in Bali, Lavrov hastily left the meeting after hearing strong criticism.
“Now is the time when Russia’s destructive war can and must be stopped. It will save thousands of lives,” Zelenski said from the screen. “We will not allow the Russian Army to rest, rebuild its forces and then start a new series of terror and global destabilization,” he promised in his address.
To prove that Putin does not want the end of the war, as he says, he challenged him to prove it with facts by complying with a decalogue of proposals that, in his opinion, can help other countries in conflict in the future. The first is to guarantee nuclear and radiation safety, considering Putin’s threat to drop an atomic bomb “blackmail to the whole world”.