Russian ambassador ignores EU state’s summons
The Polish Foreign Ministry has summoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Andreev over another alleged ‘missile incident’, but the diplomat decided that the meeting would be pointless as long as Warsaw refuses to back up its repeated accusations with evidence.
The Polish military claimed on Sunday that a Russian air-launched cruise missile briefly entered the country’s airspace for roughly 40 seconds at 4:23am near the southeastern village of Oserdow. Warsaw said it would “demand explanations” from Moscow.
“This morning I was invited to the Polish Foreign Ministry to meet with one of the deputy ministers,” Andreev told Sputnik on Monday. The Russian ambassador noted that Warsaw had already made similar accusations before, and that Moscow is still waiting for proof to back up those claims.
“Since I understood from the response of my Polish colleagues that there would be no evidence this time as well, I decided that in this situation the meeting would be pointless and declined the invitation,” Andreev stated.
The Russian Defense Ministry reported during a briefing on Sunday that its warplanes had carried out strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, but has not commented on the Polish allegations.
On December 29, Poland claimed that a Russian missile briefly entered the country’s airspace before veering back over Ukrainian territory. At the time, the Russian charge d’affaires called the claim unsubstantiated, adding that Poland will not receive any explanations until it provides evidence.
A similar incident in November 2022 was initially blamed on Russia – but Polish investigators concluded in September 2023 that the projectile that hit the border town of Przewodow, killing two farmers, was in fact a stray Ukrainian anti-air missile. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky initially blamed the incident on Russia and demanded a response from NATO, before the leaders of the US-led military bloc publicly stated that the missile was Ukrainian.
