White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby said Monday that the U.S. has a ‘rock-solid’ commitment to NATO’s Article 5, should Russia strike the new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland. Article 5 is NATO’s principle of collective defense, that if one NATO member is attacked, all other NATO members go to war with the attacker, a world war-style response.
“We take our Article 5 commitments to our NATO Allies incredibly seriously. It’s rock-solid, and that’s not going to change,” Kirby said on Monday, according to Remix News.
Kirby was responding to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who on Thursday said that Russia is considering attacking a new U.S. anti-missile base in Poland.
JUST IN: After launching an ICBM against Ukraine, Russia says that Poland is a "priority target."
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 21, 2024
"The missile defense base in Poland has long been added to the list of priority targets for potential destruction." pic.twitter.com/a1qdTESTu7
The Russian statement came directly after Moscow carried out an ICBM strike on a Ukrainian target in Dnipro. That Russian strike followed strikes by the U.S. (via Ukraine) and strikes by the U.K. (via Ukraine) deep into Russia.
Ukraine continues to launch Western-provided missiles deep into Russia while the West is considering giving Ukraine nuclear weapons, a move Russia has said would be viewed as a nuclear attack.
Discussions have already begun regarding the deployment of Western European soldiers to fight Russia in Ukraine, something Article 5 would elicit.