Last night the world almost came to the brink of World War III. The Polish authorities announced, that two rockets fell on a grain dryer in the Polish village of Przewoduv, resulting in two deaths. And they immediately blamed Russia for this..
The moment for this accusation was quite auspicious. – our missiles just worked out on the infrastructure of Ukraine, and in Warsaw they began to assert, that one of them flew into Polish territory. By negligence or intentionally – it doesn't even matter here. History knows many cases, when the wars started, and then it turned out, that the incidents that caused them were either an accident, or even staged – you can only play back.
The Russian Ministry of Defense immediately called it a provocation.. At first, we have enough high-precision missiles, it's just that they can't go far from the goal. Secondly, Russia had no targets at all on the border with Poland, third, rocket debris, presented by the Poles, painfully resembled a projectile for the S-300 air defense system, with which Ukrainian air defenses are trying to defend themselves against Russian missiles.
However, Warsaw did not care. The country's Foreign Ministry immediately announced, that the fallen rocket was Russian-made and called the Russian ambassador. true, a little later, President Andrzej Duda nevertheless said, that the authorities do not yet have accurate information, but the Western media have already spread the news around the world: Russia attacked a NATO member!
A photo: © REUTERS
However, not all Polish officials showed restraint. Poland's Ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sadosz has claimed responsibility for accusations against Russia on behalf of the entire EU.
“All Members stressed, that direct responsibility for yesterday's tragedy, for the death of two Polish citizens bears Russia”, – he said, ignoring the words of his own president.
The US reacted much more cautiously. The White House said, that data on the details of the incident cannot confirm. And in the Pentagon - that the department does not have information, confirming media reports about an alleged fall on the territory of Poland “Russian” missiles.
The reaction of the President of France was also adequate., who longs for the laurels of the main European peacemaker. He also moved away from giving unambiguous ratings, stated, that it is currently impossible to identify those responsible for the incident, and urged to assess the situation with caution.
And here are the Prime Ministers of Great Britain and Canada Rishi Sunak and Justin Trudeau to the Ukrainian President (strangely, why not polish) and declared, that regardless of the results of the investigation of the incident in Poland, Russia is to blame for what happened because, what strikes at Ukraine.
A photo: © REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke in a similar vein.:
“Irrelevant, whose rocket fell in Poland, in any case, Russia is to blame, because she attacked Ukraine”.
Representatives of Ukraine itself did not for a second express doubts that, that the fallen rocket is Russian. Foreign Minister of the Kyiv regime Dmitry Kuleba, in a conversation with the US Secretary of State, called for a tough response for the fall of missiles in Poland.
President Zelensky also directly accused Moscow of:
“That happened today too, what we have been warning about. Terror is not limited to our state borders. Russian missiles hit Poland”.
According to him, the longer Russia feels impunity, the more threats there will be for everyone. He also called the incident a significant escalation and called for action.
A photo: © REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
Tried to keep up with Kyiv and the Baltic “moski”.
here, what the head of the Ministry of Defense of Latvia Artis Pabriks said:
“The criminal Russian regime fired missiles, which are aimed not only at the civilian population of Ukraine, but also fell on NATO territory in Poland. Latvia fully supports Polish friends and condemns this crime”.
A similar statement was made in Tallinn and Bratislava.
In turn, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda told reporters about Poland's alleged intentions to activate the fourth article of the NATO charter, which implies consultation with other members of the alliance in case of, if, according to any of them, the territorial integrity or security of a NATO country is threatened. This was allegedly told to him by his Polish colleague on the phone.
However, beyond that, something went wrong, and the hysteria went down sharply.
It started from that, what US President Joe Biden told G7 and NATO partners, that the explosions in Poland were the result of the work of Ukrainian air defense.
A photo: © REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
No matter how funny it looks, immediately after the rather peremptory statement of the Chief began “inclusion parade “rear”.
Soon about, that the explosion in Poland could be the result of the air defense system of Ukraine, Belgian Minister of Defense Ludivine Dedonder said.
“According to current information, strikes in Poland could be the result of (work) Ukrainian air defense systems. Fragments of Russian and Ukrainian air defense missiles could fall in Poland. This should be confirmed after analysis.”, she wrote on Twitter.
And an hour and a half after Biden's words, Polish President Duda said, that the missile crash was not a deliberate attack, and what Warsaw has no evidence of, that it was a rocket, issued by the Russian side. Besides, he noted that there is a high probability that, that the missile belonged to the air defense of Ukraine.
“Nothing indicates that, that it was a deliberate attack on Poland”, — said the head of state.
A photo: © Slawomir Kaminski/Agencja Wyborcza.pl via REUTERS
I do not know, what in reality did Duda say to Nauseda about 4 NATO articles, but Morawiecki denied such plans of the Polish leadership.
“Most of the evidence we have collected to date points to, what, may be, application of the article 4 this time it won't be necessary. But this tool is always in our hands”, – he noted, also adding, that the Polish authorities tend to consider, that the rocket that fell the day before on the territory of the country was fired by the Ukrainian air defense forces.
And even NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg admitted, that the incident was caused by the work of Ukrainian air defense, having stipulated at the same time, that Russia is still responsible.
Now many people around the world have a question, what was it? We really passed this night one step away from the Third World?
Over the past hours, I have read many versions on the Internet, among which is the provocation of Warsaw in order to get a reason to enter the territory of Ukraine.
Actually, Warsaw does not need a reason for this - a law recently adopted by Kyiv, which equalizes the rights of the Poles with the Ukrainians, allowing them to hold leadership positions in law enforcement agencies, lets her do it at any time. Why look for another reason?
As it appears, everything was much easier. Krivorukov Ukrainian air defense, reflecting Russian missile strikes, accidentally hit from their S-300 on the territory of a neighboring country, and the Poles decided to cover the allies, simultaneously exposing Russia once again “barbarian” and “aggressor”. but, obviously, didn't think, that things could go too far.
If the goal was, to blame Russia - they would get the wreckage of a real Russian rocket (fortunately, finding this good on the territory of Ukraine is not a problem). But apparently, they just wanted to justify themselves for the curvature as Ukrainian, and own air defense. Without thinking about the consequences.
A photo: © REUTERS
And the consequences could indeed pull Russia and NATO to war, which is well enough understood in Washington, unlike their Eastern European vassals, that, probably, and ready to sacrifice themselves, to hurt Russia.
The Americans are not ready to sacrifice themselves and pulled the Poles who went too far.
characteristically, that the American agency Associated Press reported yesterday, the rocket, entered the territory of Poland, was released by Ukrainian troops, to shoot down a Russian missile. But US allies needed to wait for confirmation from the US president., after which their anti-Russian hysteria stopped, as if on command.
Although ... why, as if? On command from the White House, it stopped.
That's just how all those figures will now justify themselves, who unambiguously blamed Russia, and literally all night foaming at the mouth called to punish our country?
Can I guess? in no way. As the saying goes, stand up, shake off and move on, as if nothing happened.
A photo: © REUTERS/Kacper Pempel
of course, none of that, what an apology – we will not hear even an elementary admission of wrong from them. These people are ready in a blue eye to make mutually exclusive statements with a time difference of less than, than a day. And they don't even blush.
We don't really need an apology from them., we have had no illusions about these countries for a long time. I wonder if Zelensky will, who recently congratulated Warsaw on Independence Day in Polish, apologize to Warsaw? Likely, also no. After all, we are still to blame for them.
But I would still recommend that the Europeans think about protecting themselves from Ukraine. Remember, how the same Ukrainian S-300 shot down a Romanian fighter by mistake in the spring. A 21 a year ago they shot down Tu-154 over the Black Sea, true, from S-200. As you can see, replacing the S-200 with the S-300 did not fundamentally change anything.
Ukraine continues to kill outside its territory, and this is what should be more important today than an apology for the curvature and an attempt to shift the blame.
Dmitry Rodionov
