The Polish
government has
called a meeting
of national security officials
amid reports that two missiles of hit
a farm in eastern Poland near
the Ukrainian border are being told about
five kilometers
also in the Ukrainian border.
Two people were reportedly killed.
A Polish official tells CNN
nothing is confirmed yet.
And an investigation is ongoing.
So still waiting for more details.
But Latvia's defense minister
has offered
condolences and blame the, quote,
criminal Russian regime
Let me bring in Kurt
Volker of the Center for European
Policy Analysis
and the Atlantic Council's
former US ambassador to NATO.
He joins me now from Washington.
Great to have you on the show.
First, your reaction
to what we've been hearing.
I know we're short on details as of
right now, but your thoughts?
Well,
first off, I don't
think we should be that surprised
with Russia
launching all of these attacks
against Ukraine
that they might accidentally hit
Poland then.
I suspect that that is, in fact,
what happened
But that being said, that's unacceptable.
We need, as NATO's to get together,
have NATO's consultations,
Article four
calls for that
in the case
of any concerns
that any allies have about security
and do several things.
We should ask for an explanation
from Russia.
Ideally, the Russians would be telling us
that this was an accident
and they didn't intend
to strike NATO's territory.
If they're silent
or if they don't say that,
I think we also need to warn them
that any further attacks
would generate a proportionate response
from NATO's against the forces.
That's something
that they would not want.
But I think we have to not fail
to respond
Worst
thing would be silence from NATO's point,
which I think would then encourage Russia
to think that it could get away
with this. Yeah.
And of course, we have yet
to hear from Poland
a meeting is underway.
We've yet to hear from Nita at this hour.
Of course, that
an action if it's an accident.
What would NATO's you need to hear in
You're saying just simply
reasoning for it, an apology is
does that suffice?
Yeah.
Well,
let's start from where we want to be
We don't want Russia to be attacking
NATO's countries.
We want them to say
that's not their intention.
We also do
not want to be escalating
into a war with Russia ourselves.
This is no one's goal.
So we should be careful about that.
So it's very important
that we give Russia an out here
to say that this was an accident
and they won't be doing it again.
And to warn them
that if they do it again,
even if it's an accident,
there would be a proportionate response.
And what would that
I mean,
what would that proportionate
response be?
If we have
another accident,
two accidents, three accidents.
Yeah,
I think that's better not to specify.
But I think we have to have in mind
that NATO has a lot of capabilities,
not in Ukraine,
but in Poland or offshore, elsewhere,
where we could actually do
some serious damage to Russian forces.
And we have to be ready to do that.
The nature here shouldn't be restrained,
at least in its language, in its message
to Russia.
Obviously, at this stage,
we want to be very careful.
We don't want to escalate.
I don't think Russia wants to escalate.
And we need to make clear
that an attack on NATO's territory,
even if it's an accident,
is unacceptable.
But we are going to try to exercise
some restraint now
to prevent this from escalating.
The best position to be in is one
where you are
preventing and deterring
not where you're actually getting
engaged in fighting yourself.
So what do you imagine is
happening right now?
Kurt, I mean, from,
you know, in the NATO's side
they're looking
trying to look at this evidence.
What do you think is happening?
Just a plane of years
behind the scenes at this hour?
Well,
I think I think the first thing
that's going to happen
is people are going to analyze
where the missiles were fired from,
what was their trajectory,
what was a potential target
that the Russians may have actually been
trying to hit
where they part of a larger
barrage of missiles
and just these ones went off course,
do all that kind of telemetry analysis
and an information analysis
to see what we think
actually probably did happen.
And then also,
a lot of political maneuvering
for countries to express solidarity
with Poland to them, to make clear
that no one will accept
any attack on any NATO's ally.
And it's important
that there be an emergency meeting
in Rose Atlantic Council in Brussels
to state that as well.
Well, it seems
that some of the Baltic countries
are already
pretty nervous and pretty mad, Nate.
Latvia,
when Latvia is saying
this is a dangerous escalation,
the importance that you are talking
about having this meeting,
getting everyone on the same page.
But this comes, of course, on a day
where we've seen a barrage of of missiles
across Ukraine, across
different cities of Ukraine
and making people's lives
even darker, winter longer.
Just talk to us
where we are at this for, of course,
the stage in the war.
As as of course, Ukraine pushes
Russians further back
a particularly in Harrison.
Your analysis, your assessment so far.
Well,
what's interesting here is that
Russia is unable to win the war.
They are not able to hold the territory
that they've already taken.
Ukraine is pushing them back.
We saw that east of hockey.
We've seen that in Donbas.
We've seen that now around here.
Son. And this will continue.
And I think the Ukrainians
will continue to call that territory.
So all Russia is able to do
is terrorize Ukrainian cities
by raining bombs on them,
forcing people into shelters,
as you indicated,
turning out the electricity.
Maybe that interrupts the water supply.
That's the kind of terror
that Russia wants to inflict
on the population.
Ukraine will not give up.
They will continue to fight
and ultimately Russia will be defeated.
And I think Putin is facing
some serious problems inside Russia,
where everyone knows
that his war against Ukraine is failing
and is deeply damaging
Russia, both militarily and economically.
Yeah.
And we saw as well
how isolated
he was at the G20
with Ukraine really
being front and center.
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, we
appreciate you
taking the time to speak to us.
Thank you very much, sir.