​Two rockets fell in Poland on a town on the border with Ukraine, killing two people. According to the first information, these would be Russian missiles, but the Pentagon and the Polish authorities have not yet officially confirmed this.

This is not the first incident with a NATO country after the start of the war in Ukraine.

The drone crashed in Croatia after passing through Hungary and Romania. Neither the Russians nor the Ukrainians claimed this

In the spring, a drone launched from Ukraine crossed three NATO countries, including Romania, and crashed in Croatia, where it caused only material damage.

Croatian officials then announced a failure of the NATO defense system.

The drone flew over Hungary and Romania before crashing in Zagreb.

“Obviously, the reaction was bad, neither the assessment of the level of danger, nor the communication with other countries in an operational and fast way (…) This is an incident that should not be repeated,” – the Prime Minister of Croatia. Minister Andriy Plenkovych stated this at the time.

The drone crashed in a park six kilometers from the center of Zagreb, near a university campus with 4,500 students and about 200 meters from a residential area, without causing any casualties. 40 parked cars were damaged.

According to the Croatian prime minister, it was a Soviet reconnaissance drone used in the 1970s and 1980s. “We don’t know who it belonged to… the Russian and Ukrainian sides claim that it is not theirs,” he said. adding that this answer may be provided by elements that will be revealed during the investigation.

The Prime Minister of Croatia called for “strengthening and intensification of cooperation” in such situations within NATO. According to Croatian authorities, the plane was in Hungarian airspace for about 40 minutes without warning Croatia.

“This is the airspace of NATO, Romania, Hungary and Croatia, and we can no longer tolerate such a situation. Do not repeat yourself. It was an obvious threat to which he had to react,” Plenkovich said.

A NATO official only told AFP that “the Alliance’s integrated air and missile defense system tracked the trajectory of the object, which then crashed in Zagreb.”

What Article 5 of the NATO Treaty provides for

Article 5 of the NATO treaty was involved from the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It can be activated if one of the member states is under attack.

On the day the Russian invasion began, President Joe Biden announced that if Russia did not stay within Ukraine’s borders, Article 5 could be activated for the second time in NATO history. It happened for the first time after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

What Article 5 of the Treaty on NATO provides:

• “The Parties agree that an armed attack on one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be treated as an attack on all Parties, and accordingly agree that, should such an armed attack occur, each of them, in the exercise of the right of individual or collective self-defense, recognized by Art. 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, shall support the attacked party or parties by immediately taking, individually and jointly with other parties, any action it may deem necessary, including the use of armed force, in order to restore and maintain security in the North Atlantic area.
• Any such armed attack and any measures taken as a result thereof shall be immediately brought to the attention of the Security Council. These measures will be discontinued after the Security Council adopts the necessary measures to restore and maintain international peace and security.”

However, until Article 5 is activated, if one of the states considers itself threatened, consultations can be initiated.

Article 4 provides that: “The Parties shall consult whenever, in the opinion of either Party, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of either Party is threatened.”

In addition, on February 24, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Bohdan Aurescu said that he appealed to the Romanian representation at NATO with a request to activate Article 4 of the Washington Treaty after Russia’s attack on Ukraine.

Along with Romania, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania also applied for the activation of this article.

“We are committed to protecting every centimeter of NATO territory”

In the context of Russia’s nuclear threat, the United States in October reaffirmed its commitment to defend “every centimeter” of NATO territory.

“We are committed to defending every inch of NATO territory if and when it comes to that,” US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday ahead of a meeting of defense ministers of the alliance’s member states.