Russian missiles reportedly kill 2 in Poland. Is NATO required to respond?

UPDATE (11/16): Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that a “Russian-made missile dropped” on a Polish village in a statement on Twitter. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the incident “was caused by the shooting down and destruction of a Russian missile” and “there is no indication that yesterday’s event was an attack on Polish territory,” according to tweets from the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Poland. According to the Associated Press, initial findings by U.S. officials “suggest (the) missile that hit Poland was fired by Ukrainian forces at incoming Russian missile.” Read more about what world leaders say happened.

The original story is below.

Russia unleashed a barrage of missiles against Ukraine on Tuesday, Nov. 15, hitting targets across the country, the Associated Press reported. Russian missiles also crossed into Poland, a NATO member country, where they killed two people, an unnamed senior U.S. intelligence official told the news service.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said that the Department of Defense is “aware” of these “press reports,” but said “We don’t have any information at this time to corroborate those reports and are looking into this further,” according to a video of the news conference.

Polish government spokesman, Piotr Mueller, has not commented on this information. He did say on Twitter that the Polish Prime Minister called an urgent meeting with the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defense Affairs.

The Russian Defense Ministry denied carrying out any missile strikes near the Ukrainian-Polish border, according to a statement sent on the ministry’s Telegram channel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video shared on his Telegram channel that “Russian missiles hit Poland,” according to a translation posted by Financial Times journalist Christopher Miller. Zelenskyy called the strike a “significant escalation” and “attack on collective security.”

Is NATO required to respond to a Russian missile strike in Poland? Could this draw NATO into the war in Ukraine?

Has NATO responded? Has Poland responded?

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Twitter that “NATO is monitoring the situation and Allies are closely consulting.” He did not confirm any details about “the explosion in Poland” but said it was “important that all facts are established.”

In an Oct. 18 statement about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, NATO had said its “Alliance has a responsibility to ensure that this war does not escalate and spread beyond Ukraine, which would be even more devastating and dangerous.”

Poland has not confirmed the reported Russian missile attack that, according to the Associated Press, killed two people in Poland.

Polish government spokesman Mueller told reporters that Poland “decided a moment ago to increase the readiness of some combat military units in Poland and to increase the combat readiness of other units of uniformed services in our country,” according to Reuters.

The country also “decided to verify whether there are grounds to launch procedures under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty,” according to Reuters.

Article 4 allows NATO members to “bring any issue of concern, especially related to the security of a member country, to the table for discussion.”

Poland’s Secretary of State and Head of the International Policy Bureau, Jakub Kumoch, said consultations are underway between Polish President Andrzej Duda and NATO allies.

What does Article 5 say about NATO’s collective defense?

The 30 NATO member countries — including the U.S. — have a collective defense agreement specified in the organization’s founding treaty.

According to NATO, the collective defense agreement in Article 5 is the “heart” of the alliance. Article 5 says:

“The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area.

Any such armed attack and all measures taken as a result thereof shall immediately be reported to the Security Council. Such measures shall be terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.”

This collective defense agreement involves a deliberation process among NATO members to decide whether to invoke Article 5 over a given attack, multiple experts told PolitiFact. A Russian attack on NATO territory might be determined as accidental or not of “sufficient intensity or duration” to trigger the collective defense agreement, the outlet reported.

“There is no automatic response of any kind, under any circumstances,” Michael O’Hanlon, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, told PolitiFact.

Rather, NATO member countries will collectively determine if and how the alliance and its individual member countries respond to an attack on NATO territory, PolitiFact reported.

What counts as an armed attack on NATO?

According to Article 6 of NATO’s founding treaty, an “armed attack on one or more of the Parties” includes “an armed attack” on any territory controlled by member countries in Europe or any of the “forces, vessels, or aircraft of any” of the member countries.

What has NATO’s response been to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?

NATO “condemns in the strongest possible terms Russia’s brutal and unprovoked war of aggression against Ukraine – which is an independent, peaceful and democratic country, and a close NATO partner,” the alliance said in a statement updated Oct. 18.

Ukraine is not a NATO member but cooperates closely with the alliance as a partner country.

NATO has not sent troops into Ukraine or closed the skies over Ukraine because the alliance has focused on “defensive” actions, “designed not to provoke conflict but to prevent conflict,” the organization said.

What is going on with Russia’s war in Ukraine?

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine on three fronts early in the morning on Feb. 24, “bombarding cities, towns and villages” while Russian troops unsuccessfully attempted to take the capital of Kyiv. In response to the invasion, nations around the world, including the U.S., enacted stricter sanctions on Russia.

Months of unrelenting fighting in Ukraine has killed about 100,000 Russian soldiers and “probably” a similar number of Ukrainian soldiers, according to the U.S. General Mark Milley on Wednesday, Nov. 9, Al Jazeera reported.

About 40,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed in the fighting and another 15 million to 30 million have become refugees, according to US. estimates reported by Al Jazeera.

Ukraine, the second-largest nation in Europe by land mass, was part of the former Soviet Union until it declared independence in 1991.

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