NATO decided not to escalate due to the fall of a missile in Poland

NATO does not consider the incident with the fall of a rocket in Poland a deliberate action by Russia. Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the Alliance, announced this following the results of the November 16 meeting of the North Atlantic Council. “We have no data indicating that this was a deliberate attack. And there is no reason to believe that Russia is preparing offensive military operations against NATO,” he stressed.

According to Stoltenberg, according to preliminary data, the cause of the incident was most likely a Ukrainian air defense missile fired “to protect against Russian shelling.” With this in mind, Article 4 of the NATO Charter was not activated (and Poland insisted on this), on which the states of the alliance hold consultations if one of them sees a threat to its sovereignty and territorial integrity. According to Stoltenberg, the members of the alliance agreed that there is no need for such events. Moreover, there was no question of the application of Article 5, which regards an attack on an ally as an attack on the entire alliance.

Nevertheless, NATO did not lay the blame on Kyiv, declaring Moscow responsible. “Ultimately, Russia is responsible for continuing its illegal war against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg said. At the same time, NATO does not refuse contacts with Moscow, Stoltenberg stressed, noting that military ties play the main role in them. The secretary general refused to disclose any details of the contacts.