Foreign Affairs

‘Illogical’: Former NATO Commander Says Russian Missiles Hitting Poland Unlikely To Be ‘Deliberate Attack’

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A former NATO commander said that it was “highly unlikely and illogical” that Russia deliberately attacked Poland during a Tuesday MSNBC appearance in the wake of a reported missile impact.

“If you’re Putin and you have decided to attack NATO, the odds of launching two random missiles into a field in Poland, that’s not how this is going to start,” retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, told MSNBC host Chris Jansing. “So if you had to bet right now, I think you’d bet these were errant missiles. They went astray. That will require a significant response itself from NATO and we could talk about what that might include, but that’s very different than a presumption or an action response to a deliberate attack, which I find highly unlikely and illogical at this moment.”

An unidentified Russian missile hit a farm near the village of Przewodów, killing two people, according to The Associated Press, after which the Polish government convened its national security council. Russia reportedly launched several dozen missiles against Ukraine, knocking out power in Kiev, the AP reported.

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“I think they will be saying to their civilian masters that logically, this is unlikely to have been a deliberate attack so let’s go on the presumption that it’s inadvertent,” Stavridis said when asked if contingency planning was taking place. “But you’re right. As military leaders, they’re also responsible to plan against a worse eventuality, which could be that again, very illogical, very small percentage, but the percentage of this being some kind of deliberate action by the Kremlin. I think that invites a different and more robust set of responses out of a NATO alliance.”

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty states that members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization view an attack on one member as an attack on all.

“We’re not there yet. Let’s take a deep breath and get the facts on the table,” Stavridis said.

Russian forces retreated from key Ukrainian city Kherson Wednesday, following reported difficulties in keeping troops supplied, according to Reuters.

The Department of Defense, White House and Russian embassy to the United States did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.