Russian reserves arriving at the Polish-Belarusian border.
Earlier today reports of gunfire and minor skirmishes trickled from the border in the early hours of the morning. Frantic radio calls for reinforcements were made until skirmishes at the Polish border turned into full flagged battles, as reports of Polish and Russian units crossing each others borders in an unorganized battle took place this morning, however we come to you with breaking news.
A shocking announcement has come from NATO officials in Brussels as for the second time in history, with the first being 9/11, Article Five of the NATO charter has been invoked. In the last few hours, armed skirmishes have occurred between Polish border guards and Russian soldiers on the Belarusian border. Nobody is certain who shot first, but the last Morning’s skirmish was the first to erupt into an almost full blown battle. Diplomats on both sides have called for negotiation and hoped that the crisis would fizzle out upon an agreement being reached. However, no such negotiations are to occur as NATO officials have instead with a strong majority invoked Article Five. One NATO official from the UK claimed with chilling language that “There is no room for negotiation when a direct armed attack has been conducted on a NATO member”.
Already almost every nation in the eastern flank of NATO has invoked a national state of emergency and an immediate mobilisation of their respective armed forces. The Russian foreign ministry released a short but ominous statement claiming that “Russia will mobilise and execute the use of whatever military assets available to defend its sovereignty”. Across the internet, videos show massive military formations racing to eastern Europe, likely for the hostilities that are estimated to break out in the next few hours. For the first time since 1945, a major conventional war between multiple large nations is about to unfold on the continent. Europeans and analysts across the continent have been left speechless as many fear the untold amount of death and destruction that will soon follow.
Wreckage of several Russian armored vehicles after attempting to cross into Poland earlier today.
The response across Europe is mixed, with mixtures of protest and gathering for and against the war, varying from not only country to country, but between cities and towns. Most notable is the view in Germany, where the last time Germany was in a conventional war was the Second World War, more than eighty years ago. Since then a more pacifist attitude has gripped the nation, and the world believed that Germany was done with war, that the German armed forces would never again have to fight great battles on European soil, especially so at the end of the cold war. Yet now their forces especially are being called to action, alongside the rest of NATO.
One must remember the words of Victor Hugo “A war between Europeans is a civil war.”
AAN News, reporting.