Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / NATO confirms Russian missile landed inside Poland

Transcript

NATO confirms Russian missile landed inside Poland · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So we've got some breaking news that's just coming in.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: NATO has now confirmed that the missile that hit Poland
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: in the early hours of Thursday morning is a Russian missile.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: So authorities have been investigating a ten meter wide crater
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: at a site that's around fifty kilometers from the border
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: with Ukraine. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who traveled to
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the site, said there was no reason to believe that
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Poland was the target. He said the military appeared to
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: have responded correctly to the incident, but it would be
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: the subject of a thorough investigation. Now from NATO, we
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: have heard in response to a Russian missile of currently
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: unknown type that entered Polish airspace and later crashed into
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Polish territory, one of many missiles fired by Russia at
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: Ukraine overnight, NATO and Poland activated their air and ground defenses.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: NATO is in close contact with the authorities about the
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: violation of Poland's air space. So DW correspondent Terry Schultz
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: is in Brussels. She can tell us more about all
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of this. Terry, tell us what else is NATO saying
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: about this?
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: That's right, Anya. This statement comes from Colonel Marty O'Donnell,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: who is the spokesperson for the Supreme Allied Commander and
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: for SHAPE, which is NATO's military headquarters. And it is
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: striking that the first sentence of this statement that he
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: gave me said that it is a Russian missile, because
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: of course that's something that we've been looking at all
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: morning since this incident happened. Where did this missile come from?
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Was it a misguided one from Ukraine as we've seen
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: in the past, or was it Russian? And this of
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: course does raise the stakes even higher. As you noted,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: there is no indication that Russia targeted Poland that would
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: not be a smart move by the Russian government because
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: of course then you run the risk that you do,
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: you know, give a cause for Article five if a
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: NATO country is attacked purposefully. There is no indication that
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: that is the situation at the moment.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: But just to clarify, Terry, so Article five, just clarify
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: again for our view, is what Article five is and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: what happens in that case.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Article five is NATO's ultimate guarantee that if one country
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: is attacked, all of them will come to its defense.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: And we really shouldn't be talking about Article five. In
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: this case, nobody's been killed, and there's no indication that
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: Poland itself is under attack because of a single missile.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: But this is something that of course Russia would have
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: to keep in mind if it were to target a
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: NATO country, and that's something that always comes up. Now,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: what we could be looking at, and we don't know
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: yet whether Poland is planning to do this, is Article four.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: Those are consultations that a country can call if it
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: feels that its territorial integrity or sovereignty is threatened. It
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: is a far cry below zh Article five and remains
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: to be seen whether Poland does intend to call its
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: NATO colleagues into one of these special councils at NATO headquarters.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Okay, so Poland has not yet requested consultations with NATO
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: because of this, despite knowing that this is a Russian missile.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: As far as we know, and again this is something
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: that it's a sensitive situation because you don't want to
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: call Article four consultations about everything. They have generally refrained
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: from doing that when the drones cross into NATO territory,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: for example, because it becomes meaningless. If you're doing this,
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: you know every day, and let's look at what's been
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: happening in Romania this week. Drones have crossed the border
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: almost every day, so you can't they use this very sparingly.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: I'm certain that you know Poland is considering it, but
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: they will wait to see whether they feel that they
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: were really targeted and whether a single missile does constitute
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: a threat to its territorial integrity or sovereignty.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Does this incident, however, change NATO's air defense posture along
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: its eastern flank, would you.
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Say, well, I would say that's already heightened, due in
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: no small part to the fact that Ukraine, right across
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the border from NATO countries, is constantly under attack by
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: dozens of missiles and drones and you know, constant air barrage.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: So NATO has taken measures to strengthen its own air
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: defenses and its missile defenses. When this incident happened last September,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: when more than twenty drones crossed into Polish air space,
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: NATO set up what it calls Eastern Centry, and that
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: is making sure that all of the air defenses and
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: missile defenses that are already stationed along the Eastern Flank
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: are coordinated. They've stepped up even some of the abilities
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: to share information to decide under what circumstances they would
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: marshal what resources in the air or on the ground.
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: So I would say that NATO's eastern Eastern flank is
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: air and missile defense is already on pretty high alert.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: At the same time, that raises the question of why
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: it didn't catch this missile.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: Then, right, And I mean you're talking about a situation
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of NATO being on high alert looking ahead. I mean,
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: how concerned is NATO about the risk that other missiles
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: are going to cross into Alliance territory during any future
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: large Russian attacks on Ukraine.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: They're extremely concerned, because it doesn't matter if a missile
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: was purposely sent into territory or not if it kills
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: people on the ground. So, of course those countries along
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the eastern flanks have constantly called for more NATO air
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: defense because a lot of these countries don't have the
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: capacity to mount this kind of defense themselves. The Baltic States,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: for example, their air defense is covered by NATO and
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: not by their own air forces. So it's something that
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: is of really constant and heightened concern when you see
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: these kinds of things happen, and now that Ukraine is
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: coming under intensified ballistic missile attacks by Russia, it just
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: raises the possibility that one of them will go astray
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: and crossing Tornado, as we seem to have seen now
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: overnight in Poland.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for bringing us up to date. Terry.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: That's dw's Terry Schultz in Brussels. So what do you think.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: How do you think NATO should respond to Russia's latest
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: violation of Poland's airspace? Let us know in the comments,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: But for the moment, it's goodbye from me. Thanks for watching.