WARSAW (Reuters) – Poland is verifying if it needs to request consultations under Article 4 of the NATO military alliance treaty, a government spokesman said on Tuesday, after a report that a blast that killed two people near the Ukrainian border was caused by stray Russian missiles.
The United States and Western allies said they were investigating but could not confirm a report on Tuesday that the blast in the village of Przewodow resulted from stray Russian missiles. Russia’s defence ministry denied it.
“A moment ago we decided to verify whether there are grounds to launch procedures under Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty,” government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters.
Article 4 allows NATO members to bring any issue of concern, especially regarding security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council.
Muller also said Poland was increasing the readiness of some military units, but declined to take any question including about the cause of the incident.
“It was decided a moment ago to increase the readiness of some combat military units in Poland and to increase the combat readiness of other units of uniformed services in our country,” he said.
(Reporting by Alan Charlish, Pawel Florkiewicz; Editing by Justyna Pawlak and Sandra Maler)
