Belarus on Thursday said it shot down a stray Ukrainian air defense missile from an S-300 system that ended up in its territory and summoned Ukraine’s envoy over the incident.
“It was preliminarily established that the fragments belonged to an S-300 anti-aircraft guided missile launched from the territory of Ukraine,” the Belarusian Defense Ministry said.
The missile was downed in a field in Belarus’ southwestern Brest region, and local authorities downplayed the incident. It’s the first known time that a Ukrainian missile ended up in Belarus since the war started, and it came as Russian missiles and drones were pounding Ukrainian infrastructure.
Belarus’ Foreign Ministry said it demanded an investigation into the incident. According to Al Jazeera, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military appeared to acknowledge it was a Ukrainian missile and said the incident was “nothing strange, a result of air defense” and something that “has happened more than once.”
In November, a Ukrainian S-300 missile hit a farm in Poland, killing two people. When the missile strike was first reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top aides portrayed it as a Russian attack and demanded that NATO take action.
Ukraine had help from an unnamed US intelligence official who told The Associated Press that the missile that hit Poland was Russian. But President Biden later said the missile wasn’t Russian, and Poland and NATO publicly said it came from Ukraine. In response to the false leak, AP fired a reporter but still protected the identity of the source.
Well we are in a sorry state when we can’t figure out which missile belongs to whom…
I am quite sure they know from where and whom.
and why. A stray anti-aircraft GUIDED missile
this time WENT ASTRAY. Who would have thought?
Anyone with but a cursory knowledge of the way things like that work especially S-300 like the Ukrainian ones which are very old by now.
Out of hundreds of missiles fired, only one or two went down in Poland a friendly country of Ukraine, and the second just a few weeks later in Belarus, a friendly state of Russia. Funny no errors like that until now. Add the lack of credibility of the Ukrainians one believes only if there is evidence to support it. they blew up the pipelines, of course they can on purpose fire a missile to hit Poland and Belarus.
Only funny to those who are ignorant of the range of the missiles and where the Russians are attacking – so if this is happening by accident then you should expect the missiles to fly well short of their range when fired as ground to ground missiles (i.e. less than 120 km) they ought to fly to the north or west only if the missiles have passed their bases or the attack came from that direction – so you should only expect the missiles to hit Poland if fired near Lviv and Belarus only if fired from near Lviv or Kyiv – and only if the attack came from that direction or had passed over the missile base.
these observations should cut back on the number of S300 that would even have had the chance to go astray – now add that only a fraction will have errors and only for a fraction of that fraction will the error lead to them not just hitting the earth near the launch site but fly off without tracking their target and hit the earth at the end of their fuel.
if you put this together then what has been observed is perfectly explainable by the numbers involved and the age of the systems – the other errors that may have happened have just not been ‘discovered’ as they have fallen into the sea or on Ukrainian territory (where they would have been blamed on the Russians).
So you think that it was the Ukrainians that blew up the pipeline!? If the Ukrainians wanted to start a conflict between Poland/NATO and Russia – why would they fire a missile that would have so short range that it was very unlikely to be fired from Russian (held) territory? I mean at least put parts of a Russian Kalibr missile on it as a ‘warhead’ or something like that – what you are suggesting makes very little sense.
But you know, they know exactly what happened. Belarus is not the same as Poland an enemy of Russia.
Another stray missile? Biden wants NATO troops involved and any trick to get it will do.
The worst of it all is that no one can trust Biden and his people.
Are you really this biased – the US was fairly fast to claim that the missile in Poland was Ukrainian, that while the Ukrainians were still claiming that it was Russian – if your view was correct it is pretty clear that the US would bot have been as fast at dismissing the Ukrainian claim – do you not see this?
Poland is a NATO member, that could get NATO INVOLVED. That was a step too far, Belarus is not a NATO member, so it is safer.
Your comment was:
So your answer here:
Contradicts the first – can you not see this?
What Biden wants he can’t always get. The NATO members are opposed to war on their soil. Biden does not want American troops involved, as trainers and advisers maybe, but not to really fight a war. Biden does like the proxy war with no American boots on the ground and no bombs on the WH and the Pentagon.
Sure, that however does not explain the contradiction in your two comments – does it?
Many of them are opposed to war in general.
So how does that square with: “Biden wants NATO troops involved and any trick to get it will do.” – any war with Russia will by dint of scope involve very, very significant US troop involvement – not to mention air force involvement.
So again in complete conflict with the statement: “Biden wants NATO troops involved and any trick to get it will do.” as I see it as Biden knows full well that involving NATO troops in any significant way will be revealed very fast (likely by the troops themselves social media or otherwise when captured or killed then by their relatives. That will lead involve US troops very fast.
NATO operates with a fairly differently from Ukraine, so no NATO troops will ordinarily deploy without the usual aircover – I simply do not see any NATO units trying to fight in a way that they are not used to and at a very significant disadvantage.
I believe that this is partially true. I think that. like the Poland missile, it was intentionally done. Ukraine wants fast and quick escalation. It is in their beat interests to create conditions that would lead to increasesmd hostility between US and Russia.
Judging from other articles – and for example the fact that we are only sending *ONE* Patriot system, it seems as if there are intense US-Russian diplomatic events happening behind the scenes. I suspect – and hope – that basically Russia and US corporations are fighting over who gets what land for the final partition. Sure beats nuclear escalation.
If you are right. One problem the Russians have no reason to trust the US or any US/NATO member.
The US breaks every contract any time regardless of the consequences. The agreements with Iran, expansion of NATO , ABM agreements, they refused renewals, they stab their allies in the back like the pipeline sabotages and the deindustrialization of Germany and with it the destruction of EU. When they retreated in Afghanistan they did not inform their allies, they simply told them to find commercial flights out of Afghanistan, they break international laws, that includes war crimes, in short, the USA are a rogue state.
NATO states fear retribution if they don’t do as told, sanctions for example, and blocking energy contracts with other nations like Russia and sabotage as happened just recently. You don’t want to be a partner with the USA if you can avoid it.
Well said Renate. You nailed it.
In the Munk debate in Canada between John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt, and Radak Sikorski and Michael McFaul, McFaul admitted that U.S. diplomats lie all the time. It’s a very interesting debate to watch on Youtube
I can’t stomach McFaul, I will give it another try.
I can’t stand McFaul either or Sikorski, but the debate was very enlightening. The Canadians present for the debate voted that Sikorski and McFaul won the debate, which was so obviously not true.
I don’t think it was an accident. Belarus may or may not join Russia in its war against the U.S. and NATO. Perhaps the supposed “accidental” intrusion of the S-300 was a warning or, to test the Belarus air defense. Those things are relying on guidance provided by us.
The Great Battle Of The Defense Missiles
Once the missiles start flying for real, no one will care where they came from, as there simply won’t be anyone left alive to care.
Cynical but true…
Only one? That’s nothing compared to all the thousands of missiles and other attacks launched from Belarus and Russia into Ukraine. I’m sure Lukanhesko understands.
So nobody knows whose it is?…. Wars can get started this way, very easily… Potential conflict between Super Powers is on the rise… Peace.
PEACE IN 2023.
Wishing us ALL PEACE in the New Year and Always!….