© AP Photo/Susan Walsh/TASS

The fall of two missiles 8 km away from the border with Ukraine outside the Polish village of Przewodów to claim the lives of two people, has caused quite a stir and become a major talking point for leaders of the EU and NATO. The Polish and Ukrainian sides rushed to blame Russia for the incident. Warsaw expressed readiness to activate Article 4 of the NATO Charter, which stipulates consultations of alliance members “whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.” Moreover, Russian ambassador to Warsaw Sergei Andreyev was right away summoned to the Polish Foreign Ministry for a detailed explanation of what had happened.

However, the very next day the Poles softened their stance. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said it might not even be necessary to convene the NATO Council to consider the Przewodów incident, and President Andrzej Duda called it an accident. This was primarily brought about by the promptly conducted investigation that found the blow unintentional. In addition, a slapdown from Washington followed, and Warsaw could not help but take heed. According to Reuters, US President Joe Biden, while still at the G20 summit in Indonesia, told G7 and NATO partners that the missiles were Ukrainian, not Russian. Ukraine’s air defense fighters launched them to shoot down a Russian missile, but failed.

This cooled down the West and let politicians and experts conclude that NATO had no intention to attack Russia under Article 5. In any case, the United States and its allies won’t take action against our country, which means that the threat of a full-scale military conflict between Russia and NATO is over. At least for now. And the United States has admittedly played the decisive part in the alliance’s decision, as it takes pains to avoid a direct collision with Russia and a nuclear catastrophe. So, there is only the 4th article left for the NATO members to consult and express solidarity.

Notably, the White House has still found Russia guilty of the Polish incident as conflict originator. The Kremlin's response to this groundless accusation was not long in coming. Press Secretary of Russia’s President Dmitry Peskov said the root cause of the current situation are actions by the United States and NATO. According to him, it makes sense to rewind things and make sure that the ones to be blamed are NATO and the United States at its helm. It was them who rejected Russia's proposals for security guarantees, which eventually forced Moscow to launch its special military operation in Ukraine.

Russia can by no means be considered responsible for the Polish missile incident, the Kremlin's spokesman stressed, calling this entire situation another example of rabid Russophobia. Right you are, Mr. Peskov! Moreover, Russophobia has overwhelmed not only the United States, but the entire collective West. In the UK, for instance, all the morning headlines following the incident were so anti-Russian that you could not help but believe them.

Local media were echoed by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who said the Russian authorities were still to blame for the incident, because "none of this would have happened if Russia did not invade Ukraine." The White House’s official statement is all but the same literally, which is hardly surprising given the "special relationship" between Washington and London, especially with regard to their Russia policy.

Accusatory statements against Moscow were also heard from the Czech Republic and the Baltic states. But President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky certainly outplayed all of them. Despite evidence that the notorious missiles were Ukrainian, he kept urging to punish "the terrorist" and claiming he had no doubt the missiles were not Ukrainian.

He did not even get affected by US President Joe Biden’s statement in an interview with Reuters, when he called Zelensky’s words "not the evidence." Poland also snatched the opportunity to take Ukraine down a peg or two: speaking about the investigation which the Kiev authorities requested access to, President Duda said that was a joint procedure by Warsaw and Washington alone.

Let’s say a few words about the reaction of ordinary Britons to Zelensky's behavior and statements. In particular, readers of the Daily Mail lambasted him as "reckless" and were convinced the politician was deliberately seeking to drag the world into an armed conflict and nuclear war.

However, the incident will unlikely entail a cooling in Ukrainian-Polish relations or cause a crisis in Kiev's ties with the United States and its NATO allies. Suffice it to recall the German Defense Ministry’s announcement on a possible air defense boost for Poland to engage the Luftwaffe. Spiegel magazine wrote about it recently.

In turn, Reuters informs that the White House has requested the US Congress to allocate another tranche to help Kiev. “President Joe Biden asks for $37 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement. The request, we note, will be considered by the old Congress, with the Democrats still enjoying their majority in both chambers. In this regard, the plea will undoubtedly be accommodated to grant Kiev another batch of weapons, including air defenses, to fight the Russian armed forces.

So, it is safe to say that once the US-led West needs Ukraine as a battering ram against Moscow, it will keep pumping weapons into Kiev, whatever the cost.