NATO has always denied being in a direct conflict with Russia, since the allies only limit themselves to helping Ukraine so that it can defend itself from Vladimir Putin's troops. But as the conflict intensifies and bad news multiplies on the battlefield, new questions arise. If French President Emmanuel Macron has taken the lead in addressing the possible sending of troops to Ukraine, Poland is now the country that proposes being able to shoot down a Russian missile if they approach its borders.
This past Sunday a Russian cruise missile flew over Polish airspace for 29 seconds and this has made Warsaw reconsider intervening, as long as it has the support of the rest of the allies and Ukraine itself.
The Polish Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Adrezk Szejna, declared this Tuesday to the national radio station RMF24 that this option is currently being studied. “This could only be done with the agreement of the Ukrainian side and taking into account the international consequences,” said the politician.
After this incident, the country's foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, contacted the secretary general of the Alliance, Jens Soltenbergto explain what happened and he reminded him of the increase in Alliance troops on the eastern flank, including Poland.
Until now, allied countries have been cautious in ruling out any response that could be interpreted as direct intervention in the conflict, which has ruled out Ukraine's entry into NATO or the imposition of a no-fly zone, such as and as Kiev demanded again and again at the beginning of the invasion.
It is not the first time that incidents of this type have occurred and, so far, they have not escalated. In December, Poland also reported that an aerial missile entered its airspace for a few minutes before heading toward Ukraine. Also in December 2022, another Russian cruise missile, equipped to carry nuclear warheads, fell into Polish territory without anyone being able to detect it. It was a walker who found the remains months later while walking through a forest near Bydgoszcz.
So far the most serious event took place in November 2022, when two people died when an anti-aircraft missile fell in the Polish town of Przewodow, near the Ukrainian border. Although Kyiv assured that it was a Russian weapon, both the allies and Warsaw assured that it was a Ukrainian missile launched by mistake to repel Moscow's attacks. In this way, a military escalation with unforeseeable consequences was avoided. Until now, this has been the maximum. Cool head and restraint.
But things may change in the future if another incident of this type occurs and the Polish army is clear that the objective is to enter its territory. The country's defense minister, Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, explained that all anti-aircraft systems had been activated and that the missile could have been shot down. According to Szejha, Moscow was aware that “if the missile went further into Poland, it would be shot down. “There would be a counterattack.”
In recent weeks we have witnessed warlike rhetoric on the international scene. As the conflict enters its third year and the Russian offensive has not had the desired effects, the European consensus is that support for kyiv cannot falter. If Putin wins this war and does not stop now, in a few years there may be another country's invasion of Alliance territory, which would force the activation of the mutual defense clause of one for all and all for one. “The threat of war may not be imminent, but it is not impossible,” said the president of the community Executive, Ursula von de Leyen, at the headquarters of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in the month of February, while other leaders such as the first Estonian Minister Kaya Kallas has warned that “to avoid World War III, Russia must lose.”
Despite this growing tone of alert, NATO considers that there is no short-term danger of Russia invading other countries – right now Putin needs all its troops in Ukraine – and that the nuclear threat has not increased in recent years. months.
This tone of urgency is not shared by all members of the Alliance. The president of the Government, Pedro Sanchezassured last week after the European summit that “you cannot talk happily about third world wars or convey messages that obviously worry citizens” while diplomatic sources assure that the expression “war economy” only contributes to “distorting reality.”