A Russian strike on a weapons factory in a European NATO country would trigger the alliance’s mutual defense clause, EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius told TVP World on Thursday. He was speaking a day after Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that European factories producing weapons for Ukraine were “potential military targets for Russia.” Her comments raised concerns about the prospect of a direct confrontation between Moscow and NATO. Twenty-three of the European Union’s 27 member states are also members of the NATO military alliance. Speaking to TVP World on the sidelines of a meeting of the European Parliament’s Security and Defence Committee in Brussels, Kubilius said: “I would say if Russia will hit our factories in European territory, that would be Article 5.” Article 5 treats an armed attack against one NATO member as an attack against all, requiring allies to come to the assistance of the country targeted. Russia ‘not capable’ of NATO invasion Tensions along NATO’s eastern flank have risen amid suspected Russian-linked sabotage and cyberattacks across Europe, as well as a series of Russian missile and drone strikes close to the alliance’s borders. The incidents have fueled fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over into NATO territory. But Lieutenant General Piotr Błazeusz, Poland’s military representative to the NATO and EU military committees, said on Thursday that Russia currently lacked the military capacity to invade a NATO country. “Russia, for the moment thanks to the Ukrainian side, is not able to start any invasion on [a] NATO country. They are just not capable,” Błazeusz said.