Poland has put its military on alert and is discussing whether to invoke NATO’s Article 4, officials in Warsaw said on Tuesday evening. The government is still investigating the cause of explosions in a village near the border with Ukraine, which Kiev blamed on Russia.
Article 4 is a mechanism invoked in cases when a NATO member feels threatened, which requires consultations with the other 29 member states and a consensus decision on how to proceed. It is different from Article 5, which obligates the bloc to defend a member attacked from the outside.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller has called on the public and the media “not to publish unconfirmed information” and said he would not answer any more questions about the incident until further notice.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the bloc’s 30 members were “consulting” about the incident in Poland, and that all the facts needed to be established.
