Poland, NATO say missile strike wasn't a Russian attack

[sarisataka]

Poland, NATO say missile strike wasn’t a Russian attack

NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people did not appear to be an intentional attack, and that air defenses in neighboring Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile against a Russian bombardment that savaged its power grid.

“Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the 30-nation military alliance in Brussels, echoed the preliminary Polish findings, saying: “We have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack.”

The initial assessments of Tuesday’s deadly missile landing appeared to dial back the likelihood of the strike triggering another major escalation in the nearly 9-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, that could have risked drawing NATO into the conflict

https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-g-20-summit-nato-biden-government-and-politics-c76bead57a11bc8397a30ee7bb06264e

The commencement of World War III has been postponed.

Lucky for the earth Poland and NATO did not take the word of "experts" on Twitter without checking facts.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

1. Or here for that matter.

Some of yesterday's posts were quite interesting, to put it mildly.

[NutmegYankee]

10. The pure anti-war contingent has always been a minority here

Most will support a just war, and with Russia engaged in war of pure aggression along with torture and mass murder, that war certainly seems a just cause to pursue.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

13. Even though the missile turned out to be a Ukr. S-300 fired by the Ukrainians?

My point is that some here wanted retaliation before the investigation had started or concluded.

I too, would support a strike on Russian assests in Ukr. if it had been a deliberate attack on a NATO country, but at least let's find out what really happened before calling for an attack on the Russians.

I thank my lucky stars that we have adults in charge of NATO and the US.

[NutmegYankee]

16. I personally was happy to wait.

I suspected it was an anti-air missile that missed it's target rather early.

That said, I do want to see us help push the Orcs back into Mordor at the very least. Even if it's just a Bill Clinton style Kosovo like intervention.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

17. +100. nt

[David__77]

18. Not always, in my opinion.

…

[Wounded Bear]

2. Not DefCon 3 yet...thankfully...nt

[ColinC]

3. All of my assumptions yesterday was that this was accidental

That Russia was trying to murder Ukrainian civilians by recklessly shooting missiles, and accidentally killed Polish civilians on Polish territory directly or indirectly . This still very much appears to be the case, and would warrant any military response by Poland -although based on their downplaying, doesn’t appear to be the case.

[sarisataka]

5. Accidental yes, however

The specific missile in question was not fired by the Russians.

As Poland rightly points out, the missile would not have been launched if not for Russia's actions. It appears, thankfully, Poland is not ready to expand the war to the rest of Europe over an accident.

It is somewhat surprising, and enlightening, how many advocate much less restrained responses.

[ColinC]

9. I do not think doing nothing is restraint

Russia was attacking a city on Polands border. As a result, two people in Polish territory were killed. While the deaths were accidental, Russias aggression towards Poland by effectively attacking their border is not accidental. Continuing the same policies will likely lead to more tragedies in the future.

In the end, this is Poland’s decision to make -whatever that ultimately ends up being in the end.

[sarisataka]

11. Who has said they will do nothing?

There are options to respond without bombing Moscow or Russian ICBMs- two options that were suggested yesterday.

For that matter it doesn't even need to be a military response.

I am alarmed by how many DU posters have come to accept the idea of sending other people's children to war.

[MarineCombatEngineer]

15. .....

I am alarmed by how many DU posters have come to accept the idea of sending other people's children to war.

I am also, most here have no idea just what actual combat involves and I pray they never have to find out.

[ColinC]

19. We have spoken before, and established that I would be one of the first willing to go

As prior service army

[MarineCombatEngineer]

20. Yes we have and I commend you,

for me, I'm just too darned old and don't move quite as fluidly as I used to.

Gotta hit the road, if these wheels ain't turning, I ain't earnin.

[ColinC]

23. Thank you!

I miss the army. Albeit have had a more uneventful time than many of you who have had deployments.

[Zeitghost]

4. Our resident war mongers will be so disappointed.

Although, now that we know it was Ukraine that launched the missile that hit our NATO ally and killed it's citizens, maybe they will be calling for retaliation against Ukraine next.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Huh.

[DemocraticPatriot]

7. TOO LATE!!! All the armchair generals on DU already pushed all the buttons

so the world ended last night. R.I.P.

[Kaleva]

12. Fuuuuuuck!

[sarisataka]

14. I wish you would have told me that before I went to work

I could have slept in.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

8. Actually, it was a pro-Ukrainian Twitter-based account (Ukraine Weapons Tracker)

that very quickly analyzed photos of the wreckage and cautioned that it appeared to be a UKR S-300 missile.

Fact-checking is critical.

[Emrys]

21. Thanks, I was about to reply similarly

that you need to pick yer Twitter experts carefully. There were plenty of osint accounts that were skeptical that it was a direct Russian strike from a relatively early stage - I felt earlier than the available evidence warranted in some cases.

The Polish, US and NATO line at the moment seems intended to damp down reactions while investigations continue. I'm still waiting for a fuller picture to emerge. Ukraine has asked for its own expert team to have immediate access to the impact site. More debris is likely to be found, and it may end up that the Russian missile was headed into Polish air space when intercepted.

Whatever, Putin has no business peppering Ukraine willy-nilly with missiles anyway, a war crime in itself, and if he does, the chances of neighbouring countries being impacted obviously escalate, either from malfunctions or interceptions.

[Just A Box Of Rain]

22. There is no question that the ultimate responsibility falls on Putin.

The Ukrainians are doing their best to protect their population and infrastructure from naked agression.

It is best to proceed from evidence and reason, rather that having the sort of reactionary calls to war that we witnessed from some on this forum yesterday before the evidence was even sorted.