Poland hit by Ukrainian missile – AP
A missile that hit Polish territory on Tuesday, killing two civilians, was most likely fired from Ukraine, not Russia, US officials have told the Associated Press.
According to preliminary assessments, the projectile was launched by Ukrainian air defenses amid a large-scale Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, AP reported on Wednesday.
The information came from three US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to discuss the issue publicly.
An earlier report by AP, citing a “senior US intelligence official,” said it was a Russian missile that landed on Polish territory. However, the Pentagon declined to corroborate the claim when asked about it.
US President Joe Biden, who held consultations with NATO allies during the G20 summit in Indonesia over the incident, said that “it is unlikely, in the minds of the trajectory, that it [the missile] was fired from Russia.”
However, he urged the public to wait until the end of the investigations, pledging full support for the probe now being carried out by Warsaw.
Biden’s Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda only suggested that the missile, which killed two people in the village of Przewodow near Poland’s border with Ukraine, was “most probably” Russian-made.
Kiev’s forces still maintain a stock of Soviet-made missiles, including rockets for S-300 air defense systems.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, however, has been quick to blame Russia for the incident, and urged NATO, of which Poland is a member, to “act” against this “attack on collective security.”
Moscow has denied any involvement in the missile landing in Przewodow, saying Russian forces did not carry out any strikes against targets near the Polish-Ukrainian border on that day.
