Poland Considers Invoking NATO Article 4 After ‘Russian-Made Missile’ Hits Village, Kills 2

Head of the Office of National Security, Jacek Siewiera (L), and Spokesperson of the Polish government, Piotr Muller, make a statement after a crisis meeting of the Office of National Security, in Warsaw, on Nov. 15, 2022. Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images

Poland is considering calling on NATO to invoke Article 4 after a “Russian-made missile” hit a village inside its territory near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, killing two Polish citizens.

“A moment ago we decided to verify whether there are grounds to launch procedures under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty,” government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters on Wednesday.

Poland is a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Article 4 allows NATO members to call a meeting to discuss any issue of concern, particularly if that issue is related to the security of a member country within the North Atlantic Council.

Specifically, Article 4 of the NATO charter states that member states “will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the parties is threatened.”

Muller said Poland’s military was also on high alert following the incident in the village near the Ukrainian border.

“It was 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,” he said.

Meanwhile, Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, called an urgent meeting of the Committee of the Council of Ministers for National Security and Defense Affairs on Tuesday.

President Andrzej Duda said on Twitter that he had spoken with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and verified “the premises of Article 4,” adding, “we are in contact with our allies and we expect talks with the American side.”

Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) confirmed early Wednesday morning local time that the missile had hit the village of Przewodów, district Hrubieszów, Lubelskie province at 3:40 pm. Spokesperson Łukasz Jasina said in a statement that the missile had resulted in the death of two Polish citizens.

“Therefore, Minister of Foreign Affairs Zbigniew Rau summoned the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Polish MFA and demanded an immediate and detailed explanation,” the statement read.

Moscow Denies Involvement

It is currently still unclear if the missile strike was intentional or an accident, and which side fired the Russian-made weapon. However, it marks the first time since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that someone has been killed on NATO territory.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Wednesday’s missile strike “a very significant escalation” of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

However, Moscow has denied any involvement.

Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement, accused Polish media and officials of deliberately attempting to escalate the Russia-Ukraine conflict by involving a NATO member country.

“Polish mass media and officials commit deliberate provocation to escalate [the] situation with their statement on alleged impact of ‘Russian’ rockets at Przewodow,” the statement read. “Russian firepower has launched no strikes at the area between Ukrainian-Polish border. The wreckage published by Polish mass media from the scene in Przewodow have no relation to Russian firepower.”

Biden Says ‘Unlikely’ Missile Fired By Russia

Elsewhere, U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters outside the G20 meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on Wednesday that it is “unlikely” that the missile was fired by Russia.

An emergency meeting was called with world leaders amid G20 from countries including the United States, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom following Wednesday’s deadly explosions.

“There is preliminary information that contests that. I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate it but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia but we’ll see,” Biden said.

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about the situation in Poland following a meeting with G7 and European leaders on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Nusa Dua on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on Nov. 16, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Biden added that the United States and its NATO allies are investigating the blast.

“We agreed to support Poland’s investigation into the explosion in rural Poland, near the Ukrainian border, and they’re going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened,” Biden said.

“And then we’re going to collectively determine our next step as we investigate and proceed. There was total unanimity among folks at the table.”

If Russia is found to have intentionally been behind the blast, it could prompt NATO to trigger Article 5, under which an attack on one member of the alliance is deemed an attack on all.

Caden Pearson and Reuters contributed to this report.