Preliminary Investigation Indicates Ukrainian Missile Landed in Poland

Andrzej Duda, the Polish President, and Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated Wednesday that the explosion that killed two Polish citizens may have been caused by an errant Ukrainian missile defense system rather than a Russian cruise missile.

Initial reports Tuesday that a Russian missile had hit Polish civilians caused a lot of drama. There were also allegations of a “false flag” operation by Ukraine and loss of bowels in the “World War III is imminent” group. Based on an earlier Associated Press story, my report was incorrect. The error was not solely that of the Associated Press. Although my thoughts were not as specific, they were similar to the thread.

I was surprised at the Ukrainian government’s initial reaction. They had to have known that NATO and Poland knew the truth. The Polish Foreign Ministry called the Russian ambassador for an explanation.

This is one of those instances when Twitter (like the MH-17 shootdown it seems increasingly likely that Iran accidentally fired down that Ukrainian airliner) was the Open Source Intelligence community, OSINT, deduced the answer hours prior to the official statement.

Let’s get back to the story.

Yesterday, Poland demanded an emergency meeting of NATO under Article 4, which concerns violations of “territorial integrity, political independence, or security.” In light of the conclusion that it was a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile, that meeting has been canceled. That said, the realization that the war in Ukraine presents a real physical threat to all neighboring countries was underlined by NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, who said, “Let me be clear: This is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”