Massive Russian missile barrage pummels cities across Ukraine
NBCDec 25, 2022
The Facts
Following the latest barrage of Russian missiles fired on Ukraine on Thursday, Belarus said it shot down a Ukrainian S-300 air-defense missile near the village of Harbacha in the Brest region, roughly nine miles (15 km) from the border of Ukraine.
Ukraine's ambassador to Belarus was summoned to the foreign ministry in Minsk as a result of the incident. Ministry spokesman Anatoly Glaz said: "The Belarusian side views this incident as extremely serious." He continued, saying: "We demanded that the Ukrainian side conduct a thorough investigation," and called for Ukraine to "hold those responsible to account." Glaz also stated that the neighboring country should seek to stop an incident like this from happening again.
The Spin
Narrative A
The firing of an air-defense missile into Belarus is a very serious incident that risked prompting an international escalation of the conflict. Ukraine needs to conduct a thorough review to prevent this type of potentially inflammatory event from occurring again.
Narrative B
The Kremlin is desperate to involve Belarus in its war of aggression in Ukraine. As such, it cannot be ruled out that Russia deliberately laid a route for one of its missiles that would lead to it being intercepted over the territory of the country.
Narrative C
The S-300 is a Soviet-era weapon used by both Russia and Ukraine. It's notoriously unreliable and is known to miss its targets and go astray. Although undesirable, there's nothing strange or suspicious about this incident.
Metaculus Prediction
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