Missile incident in Poland will not harm Ukraine-NATO relations, Estonian envoy says
On November 15, a rocket fell in Poland (Photo:REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)
Even if the Nov. 15 missile incident in Poland was caused by a Ukrainian anti-air missile, the blame falls on Russia and its war of aggression – which is why the incident does nothing to harm Ukraine-NATO relations, Estonia’s NATO Ambassador Jüri Luik told Estonian public broadcaster ERR on Nov. 16.
“As said, we don’t yet know where it (missile) came from,” Luik said.
“But even if it was a stray missile tied to Ukraine defending itself against Russian invaders and the overwhelming missile barrage they unleashed, it was clearly an accident or technical glitch, which in no way undermines relations between NATO Allies and Ukraine.”
According to Luik, “assistance to Ukraine will be retained in full, and the more quality Western anti-aircraft weapons we send to Ukraine, the more effective they will be at destroying Russian missiles.”
He stressed that the investigation is ongoing and no final conclusion can be drawn yet.
“But it is clearly a random incident, not an attempt to target NATO territory,” Luik concluded.
On Nov. 15, during a massive Russian air attack on the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine, a missile fell onto the village of Przewodów in the Lublin district of Poland, killing two people.
After that, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki convened an urgent meeting of the National Security and Defense Affairs committee.
Polish President Andrzej Duda later said the missile could have been fired by Ukrainian air defenses as they were intercepting incoming Russian cruise missiles inbound at targets near Poland’s border.
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