CNN reports from the site where an explosion left two dead in Poland 1:45
(CNN Spanish) --
After it was reported that a missile hit a farm in Poland —a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO—, near the border with Ukraine, the Polish authorities called an emergency meeting with national security officials.
The world, meanwhile, is awaiting the investigation with attention, since the implications of the projectile having come from Russia —if proven— would be very serious for the development of the war in Ukraine.
Poland said "Russian-made missiles" hit its territory, but did not specify the type of missile or where it was fired from.
What is key is that they fell on the territory of a NATO member country around the same time that Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.
Principal deputy spokesman for the State Department, Vedant Patel, said the United States could not confirm reports of missiles hitting Polish territory, killing two people.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry denied attacking the Polish-Ukrainian border.
In a brief statement, he said that the reports about "the alleged missile drop" was a "deliberate provocation to escalate the situation."
And he added that "there were no attacks on targets near the state border between Ukraine and Poland."
He also mentioned that photos of the wreckage published by the Polish media "from the scene in the village of Przewodow have nothing to do with Russian weapons."
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NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will chair an emergency meeting of alliance ambassadors on Wednesday morning in Brussels to discuss "this tragic incident," NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu told CNN on Tuesday.
Stoltenberg said it was "important that all the facts be established" after speaking with Polish President Andrzej Duda about the explosion in Poland on Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden "reaffirmed America's strong commitment to NATO" and the leaders agreed that their teams "will remain in close contact to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation progresses."
Poland evaluates invoking Article 4 of NATO, after reports of missiles falling on its territory
Article 4 and Article 5
Poland is considering asking NATO members to discuss Article 4, after the missile reports.
Article 4 allows any member country to request consultations with the rest of the Alliance and states: "The parties shall consult each other whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened".
And the conversation also revolves around Article 5, the principle that an attack on a NATO member represents an attack on all NATO nations.
This has been the cornerstone of the 30-state alliance since it was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union.
The purpose of this principle is to discourage potential adversaries from attacking NATO members.
What is NATO Article 5 and how does it apply to the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Article 5 has only been invoked once, in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States.
However, the alliance can take collective defense measures without invoking Article 5, and has done so in light of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
The State Department's Patel said repeatedly Tuesday that he would not discuss hypotheses when asked about NATO Articles 4 and 5, but said intent "is something that would be important" in determining an answer.
“As I said, we will determine what happened and we will determine the appropriate next steps, but as I said, this happened in the last hour, so we are still taking important time to find out the exact facts,” he said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has long complained that NATO has, over time, expanded its borders by admitting Eastern European countries that were once part of the Soviet Union, meaning Russia now shares a land border with the world's largest military alliance, thereby reducing its geopolitical power in what was once Moscow's sphere of influence.
As recently as February, he was demanding that NATO be reduced to the 1997 borders, before the Baltic nations of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, the last two bordering Russia, joined the alliance.
US Defense Department Press Secretary General Pat Ryder said the United States is "aware of press reports alleging that two Russian missiles have struck a location inside Poland near the border with Ukraine", but currently has no information to corroborate those reports.
The Defense Department repeated that the United States "will defend every inch of NATO territory" while it awaits further information.
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This would be the "worst thing" NATO could do now
Kurt Volker, of the Center for European Policy Analysis and the Atlantic Council, and a former US ambassador to NATO, said he did not think "that we should be so surprised that Russia launches all these attacks against Ukraine and that they could accidentally hit Poland."
"I suspect that, in fact, that is what happened. But having said that, it is unacceptable. We need to come together as NATO, we need to consult with NATO. Article 4 requires it in case of any concern that any ally has in relation to security and do various things," Volker told CNN.
"We should ask Russia for an explanation. Ideally, the Russians would tell us that it was an accident and that they did not intend to attack NATO territory," Volker explains.
"If they're silent or don't say that, I think we should also warn them that any further attack would trigger a proportionate NATO response against their forces. That's something they wouldn't want."
"But I think we should not stop responding. The worst thing would be silence from NATO, which I think would then encourage Russia to think it can get away with it."
NATO's military power
NATO is made up of 30 countries (28 Europeans and 2 North Americans) and is a highly varied group: from the gigantic United States, the world's largest economy and home to some 330 million people, to uninhabited Iceland, an island in the middle of the Atlantic with just over 300,000 inhabitants, and the tiny Luxembourg and Montenegro.
But its members include some of the most powerful and capable—and historically relevant—militaries in the world.
According to the Global Firepower Index, among the 15 most powerful armies in the world, there are 5 from NATO: the United States (1st), France (7th), the United Kingdom (8th), Italy (11th) and Turkey. (13th).
In addition, NATO members include three countries with nuclear arsenals —the United States, France and the United Kingdom—, out of the nine currently in the world that have these weapons of mass destruction.
These three countries are also permanent members —with veto power— of the UN Security Council.
With information from German Padinger, Paul LeBlanc, Tim Lister, Tara John, Antonia Mortensen, Anna Chernova and Emmet Lyons, CNN
War in UkraineMissilesPoland