On Tuesday, November 15, at around 7:15 p.m. Spanish peninsular time, a situation occurred that made most of the Western powers hold their breath. Half the planet was aware of what had happened in Poland, in the town of Przewodow, where an explosion occurred that killed two people. The first information indicated that it was about two Russian missiles that had hit the territory of a NATO member country.
From Bali, at the G20 summit, the US president, Joe Bidenwas temperate enough to calm things down and intervened to say that it was “unlikely” that the missile was fired from Russia that caused the explosion in Poland, near the border with Ukraine. But she didn’t just stop there. He also anticipated that the G7 and NATO would support the Polish government’s investigation into the incident before taking “further steps.” It was his way of reducing the tension of the moment.
However, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, does not agree with Biden or Poland, and insists on describing the attack as “Russian aggression”. In his usual late-night speech, Zelensky has underlined this Wednesday that Ukraine’s position on the incident is “very transparent” and that you need to participate in the investigation at the site of the explosion.
[Zelenski pide acceso al lugar de la explosión en Polonia para demostrar que el misil era ruso]
Zelenski has alluded to the issue of the missile when referring to the UN Security Council meeting in which “the new wave of russian missile terror”. “Of course, one of the main topics at the Security Council meeting is the situation in Polandthe clarification of all circumstances how the Russian aggression crossed the Polish border”has assured, in statements collected by efe.
“That is why -he added- we need our specialists to join the work of the international investigation and have access to all the available data from our partners and from the place of the explosion”.
Zelensky maintains that all the information available to Ukraine is “in full access” and is being provided to Western partners from the first hours of the missile explosion. “Last night I spoke with President Duda and expressed my condolences: Russian aggression claimed the lives of two Polish citizens”, he has insisted. Its objective is none other than to force NATO to intervene in the conflict. Because Ukraine is not part of the Atlantic Alliance, but it knows that if a Russian aggression occurs on the territory of any of its members, that will play in kyiv’s favor.
critical hours
The truth is that as soon as the news of what happened in the town of Przewodow was released, Poland urgently summoned the members of the Committee for National Security and Defense Affairs to investigate what happened. There was talk of the possibility of invoke article 4 of the Atlantic Alliancethe step before the application of article 5 of the same treatyknown as the principle of collective defense.
[La OTAN dice que Rusia es la responsable última del incidente en Polonia por iniciar la guerra]
This principle stipulates that any “armed attack” against one of the NATO members is considered an aggression against all the countries of the Alliance. Consequently, each one of the members has the obligation, “in exercise of the right of individual or collective legitimate defense recognized by article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, to assist the Party or Parties attacked taking such measures as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force”.
However, 17 hours after the attack, the Polish government told its NATO partners that the missiles that fell on Tuesday in Przewodow were shot by the Ukrainian armyTherefore, Warsaw made the decision not to invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty. Thus corroborating the announcement that Biden had made from Bali. for now, Zelensky will continue to fight this war alone. With the support of the Western powers, but without their military involvement on the ground.
Russia-Ukraine War
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