The Polish government has, at least for now, backed away from invoking consultations among NATO members under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty over the Ukrainian missile which landed in Poland on the night of Nov. 15. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told public broadcaster TVP Info on Nov. 16 that “because of the course of events and the information coming in during the night, we can conclude that this was not an intentional attack…. Therefore, we did not activate Article 4 … and this approach met with the full approval of all our allies.”
“In all likelihood, it was a Russian-made missile of the S-300 type. We have no proof at this stage that it was a missile launched by Russia. There are many indications that it was an air defense missile that unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” Morawiecki also said. “We are in constant contact with all allied services. They have also confirmed evidence collected by our intelligence agencies, which we will soon use to draw conclusions.”
Russia is watching Polish government actions closely. The Russian Foreign Ministry reported on Nov. 16 that Poland’s Ambassador in Moscow had been summoned to the Ministry, to caution Warsaw “against becoming involved in nasty provocations staged by the Kiev regime and against initiating schemes of its own.” Moscow called it “unacceptable” that Warsaw had immediately summoned the Russian Ambassador in Poland “to stage a political show” after the missile hit, “although this happened at night and no reliable information was available about the event.”
