A stray missile that landed on a farm in Poland should not be a cause for an all-out war between Russia and Nato, according to Colonel Richard Kemp.
He told GB News: “We haven’t seen a definitive assessment of it, particularly by the Americans who are probably the best-placed to give an assessment. It appears from President Biden’s remarks and from what we’ve heard coming out of the US that this was a Ukrainian interceptor fired as a Russian missile coming in.
“Obviously, it was an accident and I think, frankly, right from the early stages, the idea that a Russian missile would have landed in Poland in a relatively open area, would almost certainly have been an accident anyway. It wouldn’t have been a part of a deliberate attack on Poland.
“So I think that was relatively clear from the beginning. I doubt that picture will change very much.”
In an interview with Phillip Davies and Esther McVey on GB News he said: “I think if the US or British governments are saying that it’s a Ukrainian interceptor, that’s probably what it is, if they’re accurate in the technical information they’ve got, but frankly even if it was from Russia, it’s not a cause for war.”
He said: “Article 5 means that an attack on one nation of Nato is an attack on all nations of Nato. It doesn’t specify what the response must be.
“It doesn’t say that every single nation must join a military response, although that would be expected if it was necessary.
“For example, after 9/11, that was invoked as an Article 5 attack on the US and other Nato countries. We’re required to assist America not all by going to war, but in various different ways.
“We’ve seen other examples. Earlier this year, there was an Indian missile fired accidentally into its enemy, Pakistan. That didn’t trigger a war.
“There was a Turkish anti-aircraft system that shot down a Russian combat aircraft a few years back and that didn’t trigger war either.
“While it doesn’t remove any of the blame from Putin, I don’t think it’s the same thing as deliberate aggression.”
