Polish and NATO leaders said the missile that killed two people on Polish soil on Tuesday was likely fired by Ukrainian forces defending their country from a barrage of Russian attacks and that the incident appeared to be an accident.
The explosion occurred outside the village outside the rural village of Przewodow in eastern Poland, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) west of the Ukrainian border on Tuesday afternoon, around the same time as Russia launched its biggest ever wave of missile attacks. in Ukrainian cities in more than a month.
On Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda told a news conference that there was a “high probability” that it was an air defense missile from the Ukrainian side and likely fell in Poland in an “accident” while intercepting incoming Russian missiles.
“There is no indication that this was a deliberate attack on Poland. Most likely, it was a Russian-made S-300 missile,” Duda said in a tweet earlier Wednesday.
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used Russian-made munitions during the conflict, including the S-300 surface-to-air missile system, which Kyiv has deployed as part of its air defenses.
The incident in NATO country Poland prompted ambassadors of the US-led military alliance to hold an emergency meeting in Brussels on Wednesday.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also said there was no indication the incident was the result of a deliberate attack by any side and that Ukrainian forces were not responsible for defending their country against Russia’s attack.
“Our preliminary analysis shows that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile that was fired to defend Ukrainian territory from Russian cruise missile attacks,” Stoltenberg said. “But let me be clear, it’s not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”
Stoltenberg also said there was no evidence Russia was planning to attack NATO countries, in comments that appeared intended to defuse the escalation.
News of the incident sparked a flurry of activity thousands of miles away in Indonesia, where US President Joe Biden called an emergency meeting with some world leaders to discuss the issue on the sidelines of the G20 summit.
A joint statement after the emergency meeting at the G20 was deliberately ambiguous when it came to the incident, putting much more emphasis on the dozens of strikes that took place in the hours before the missile crossed into Poland.
Duda’s and Stoltenberg’s comments echo those of two officials briefed on the initial US assessment, who told CNN it appeared the missile was Russian-made and came from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military told the US and allies that it attempted to intercept a Russian missile in that time frame and near the site of the Polish missile, a US official told CNN. It is not clear that this air defense missile is the same missile that hit Poland, but this information has informed the ongoing US assessment of the strike.
The National Security Council said the US has “full confidence” in the Polish investigation into the blast and that Russia is “ultimately responsible” for the incident for its ongoing incursion.
But on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he did not believe the missile was fired by his forces and called on Ukrainian experts to join the investigation. “I have no doubt that it was not our missile,” he told reporters in Kyiv.
Earlier on Wednesday, an adviser to Zelensky said the incident was the result of Russian aggression, but did not explicitly deny reports that the missile could have been fired from the Ukrainian side.
“Russia has turned the eastern part of the European continent into an unpredictable battlefield. Intent, means of execution, risks, escalation – everything comes from Russia alone,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in a statement to CNN. “And there can be no other explanation for any missile incident here. Thus, when an aggressive country launches a deliberate, massive missile attack against a major country on the European continent with its antiquated Soviet-era weapons (Kh-class missiles), sooner or later the tragedy occurs on other states’ territories as well.”
A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force told national television on Wednesday that the military would “do everything” to facilitate the Polish investigation.
“What happened was the Air Defense Force repelled the air attack,” said Yuriy Ikhnat, a spokesman for the Air Force Command in Ukraine. “What happened next – whether it was a Russian missile, whether it was the debris from both rockets that fell – that needs to be inspected at the scene. And that’s what’s happening right now.”
Earlier, Biden said preliminary information suggested it was unlikely the missile that landed in Poland was fired by Russia, after consulting with allies at the G20 Summit in Bali.
“I don’t want to say that [it was fired from Russia] until we fully investigate,” Biden continued. “It is unlikely in the orbiter’s mind that it was launched from Russia. But we’ll see.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday that Russia had “nothing to do” with the missile incident in Poland and that some leaders made statements without understanding “what really happened.”
“The Poles had every opportunity to immediately report that they were talking about the wreckage of the S-300 air defense system missile. And, accordingly, all experts would have understood that this could not be a missile that has anything to do with the Russian Armed Forces,” Peskov said during a routine briefing with reporters.
“We are witnessing another hysterical frenzy of Russophobic reaction, which was not based on any real evidence. High-ranking leaders of different countries made statements without having a clue of what really happened.”
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told CNN that NATO allies should “keep a cool head” in light of the incident.
“I think we really have to be cool, knowing that there can be a knock-on effect, especially in those countries that are very close [to Ukraine]Callas told CNN’s chief international anchor, Christiane Amanpour, in an interview Wednesday.
“I can’t look into their warehouses and see what they’re doing [NATO members] actually, but I can call the leaders of NATO allies who have more and say ‘please look at your warehouse, search your warehouses, find things you have, make deals with [the] the private sector that develops equipment,’ so we can send top-of-the-line equipment to Ukraine and end this war once and for all,” Kallas said.
Russia launched a barrage of 85 missiles into Ukraine on Tuesday, mostly targeting energy infrastructure. The bombing caused blackouts in cities and cut power to 10 million people across the country.
Zelensky later confirmed on Twitter that power had been restored to eight million consumers. “Supply to 8 million consumers has already been restored. Electricians and repairmen will be working through the night. Thank you all!”
Ukrainians across the country were expected to experience further scheduled and unscheduled power outages on Wednesday.
“Nov. 15 mass missile attacks on energy infrastructure and cold weather further complicated the situation with the electricity system,” state energy company NPC Ukrenergo said in a statement.
“Please prepare for longer power outages: stock up on water, charge your devices and power banks in advance to stay in touch with loved ones.”
