WARSAW – Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said early Wednesday the missiles which fell on a village in the country’s east, killing two people, were Russian made.
Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau summoned the Russian ambassador to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a demand to provide a detailed immediate explanation.
A US intelligence official earlier said the missiles were Russian, according to the Associated Press.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of deliberately attacking Poland.
"This is a Russian missile attack on collective security," he said. "This is a very significant escalation. We must act…(It is) only a matter of time before Russian terror goes further,” he said.
According to unconfirmed information in the Polish media, two variants are being checked: one, that the Ukrainian military shot down a missile and it changed course, and two, there was a Russian programming error.
State news agency Ria Novosti cited a Russian military expert who claimed that Russian cruise missiles “would not have been able to reach Polish territory, but Ukrainian S-300 (surface-to-air) missile systems, functioning abnormally, could.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense posted a statement on its Telegram channel saying that this is "a deliberate provocation in order to escalate the situation."
‘Very concerned’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed concern Tuesday over reports of a suspected missile attack in Poland and called for avoiding escalating the war in Ukraine.
Guterres is "very concerned by the reports of a missile exploding on Polish territory. It is absolutely essential to avoid escalating the war in Ukraine," UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Twitter.
Speaking on behalf of Guterres, Haq said the UN secretary general expresses his condolences to the families of the victims and “hopes that a thorough investigation will be conducted."
'Unlikely' from Russia
Preliminary information indicates that "it’s unlikely" that a projectile fired into Poland was from Russia, US President Joe Biden said early Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with some world leaders during his final day at the G-20 Summit in Bali, Indonesia, Biden offered his sympathies for the two people killed in the explosion.
When asked if the missile was from Russia, he said: "There is preliminary information that contests that. I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate. It’s unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia."
Biden also spoke with Polish President Andrzej Duda and offered US support for an investigation by Poland into the reported explosion.
Meanwhile, NATO ambassadors will meet Wednesday to discuss Russian missiles landing in alliance member Poland’s territory.
The urgent meeting, which will be chaired by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters in Brussels, will discuss the "tragic incident" in which two Poles were killed, according to a statement by the alliance. (Anadolu)
