[pjw] NEWS: Initial findings suggest Ukriaine fired missile that hit Poland (CNBC 11/16)

[Peace and Justice Works]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2022 10:20:18
From: Peace and Justice Works <pjw at pjw.info>
To: Peace and Justice Works <pjw at pjw.info>
Subject: NEWS: Initial findings suggest Ukriaine fired missile that hit Poland
     (CNBC 11/16)

Supporters of peaceful conflict resolution

While "World War III" has been trending on anti-social media after news that a
missile hit Poland and killed two people, the US and NATO seem to agree that it
was Ukraine which fired that missile. They blame Russia anyway. I suppose
there's some logic to that-- after all, for instance, Fred Bryant died of the
stress he endured from protesting the Portland Police killing his son Keaton
Otis, and the community blames Fred's death on the police. But the fact remains
that NATO should not start invoking its mutual defense pact to defend Poland if
Russia itself did not deliberately attack that country. In theory, it means NATO
should attack Ukraine (that's a joke, but an interesting concept).

Anyway, here's the CNBC article whose initial headline was "Ukraine reacts as
initial findings suggest it fired the missile at Poland" but some enterprising
editor changed it to "Kyiv says Poland strike a `very sensitive issue,' wants to
see evidence that its forces fired missile." But there's no media bias in this
war, the corporate media is 100% neutral (that's also a joke).

dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group

PS don't forget Medea Benjamin is talking about Ukraine tonight at the First
Unitarian Church at 7 PM, if you are ok with an indoor event where masking is
optional.

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  https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/16/ukraine-reacts-as-initial-findings-suggest-it-fired-the-missile-that-hit-poland.html
Kyiv says Poland strike a `very sensitive issue,' wants to see evidence that
its forces fired missile
    Published Wed, Nov 16 20225:12 AM EST
    Updated 3 Hours Ago
    Holly Ellyatt at HollyEllyatt

    Key Points
      * Ukraine's Defense Ministry was cautious Wednesday as evidence
        mounted that its own armed forces fired a missile that hit Poland.
      * Several media reports cited Western officials as saying initial
        assessments suggested the missile was fired from a Ukrainian air
        defense system.
      * Ukraine's Defense Ministry said the issue was "very sensitive" and
        welcomed a thorough investigation.

    Ukraine's Defense Ministry responded cautiously to mounting evidence
    suggesting its own armed forces fired a missile that hit Poland,
    killing two people -- saying the issue was "very sensitive" and that it
    wanted its own officials to be able access the site where the incident
    took place.

    Early Wednesday morning, The Associated Press reported, citing three
    unnamed U.S. officials, that preliminary assessments indicated "the
    missile that struck Poland had been fired by Ukrainian forces at an
    incoming Russian missile."

    Other media agencies, including NBC News, cited similar details on
    Wednesday; Reuters reported a NATO source as saying President Joe Biden
    had told the G-7 and NATO partners that the strike was caused by "a
    Ukrainian air defense missile," while The Wall Street Journal cited two
    senior Western officials briefed on the preliminary U.S. assessments as
    saying the missile was from a Ukrainian air defense system.

    Those initial findings were then confirmed by NATO on Wednesday morning
    with Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg telling reporters that while
    investigations continue, the strike was likely caused by a Ukrainian
    air defense missile but that, ultimately, Russia was "responsible for
    the war that has caused this situation."

    Earlier Wednesday, Ukraine's Defense Ministry was cautious about the
    initial assessments of the incident. Yuriy Sak, an advisor to Ukraine's
    defense minister, Oleksiy Reznikov, told CNBC that Kyiv welcomed a
    thorough investigation of the incident and said the issue was "very
    sensitive."

    "It is too early to give any definitive answers and it's very dangerous
    to jump to any conclusions," Sak said Wednesday morning.

    "I would like to just stress once again that right now, the president
    of Poland has said that there are no conclusive evidence of what
    exactly has happened. Joe Biden, when he was making his comment, he was
    also cautious because everybody understands that this is a very
    sensitive issue," he said.

    "Before any conclusions are made, an investigation must be done. So,
    that is where we stand," he said.

    After NATO's comments, Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine's National
    Security and Defense Council, tweeted that Kyiv favored a "joint study"
    into the incident. Danilov said on Twitter that Ukraine was "ready to
    hand over the evidence of the Russian trail that we have" but Kyiv was
    still awaiting "information from our partners, on the basis of which a
    conclusion was made that it is a Ukrainian air defense missile."

    He added that Ukraine had requested that Defense Ministry and border
    guard officials be granted immediate access to the site of the
    explosion.

Missile hit context

    Tuesday night's incident came after Ukraine suffered a wave of missile
    strikes by Russia with one Ukrainian official saying more than 90
    missiles were fired at the country. The attacks knocked out energy
    infrastructure across Ukraine, reportedly leaving 7 million people
    without power.

    For its part, Ukraine blamed Russia for the missile that hit Poland on
    Tuesday night, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly telling
    his Polish counterpart that it was "a rocket launched from the
    territory of the Russian Federation." Russia said it had not fired the
    missile and called it a "deliberate provocation in order to escalate
    the situation."

    Ukrainian defense official Sak told CNBC that Ukraine's international
    allies should have responded to Kyiv's repeated requests for them to
    impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

    NATO refused to do that early in the war, fearing it would be dragged
    into a direct conflict with nuclear power Russia.

    "What we want to stress is that if there was no invasion of Ukraine,
    yesterday would not have happened. If the Ukrainian sky would have been
    closed at our request by our allies, this would not have happened," Sak
    said, echoing comments by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who said
    Wednesday morning that "none of this would be happening if it wasn't
    for the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

    Sak said it was crucial that the missile incident didn't distract from
    Ukraine's defense needs.

    "It is very important that we don't shift the focus now and that we
    continue to discuss the options for further closing the Ukrainian sky,
    providing Ukraine with efficient air defense systems, because what
    needs to happen is that we need to all collectively make sure that such
    tragic incidents as yesterday do not happen again," he said.

    As a flurry of urgent and high-level diplomatic talks are taking place
    among NATO members on Wednesday, defense analysts agreed that, whether
    Russia fired the missile or not, it bears a lot responsibility for the
    attack.

    "Russia is to some degree culpable regardless, because it's firing
    missiles on civilian infrastructure targets, and firing them
    dangerously close to NATO territory and the Ukrainian-Polish border,
    and Ukraine needs to defend itself," Samuel Ramani, a geopolitical
    analyst and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute
    defense think tank, told CNBC on Wednesday.

    "But it may not be that Russia intentionally targeted Poland, and it
    could be Ukraine doing it. So right now, I think we need an
    investigation to figure out what's really happening."