Poland blast: What do we know about the missile explosion near the Ukrainian border?
Key questions remain around the circumstances of the missile which struck Poland near its Ukrainian border on Tuesday, killing two people.
None is larger than who fired it. It came on a day when Russia launched a blistering series of airstrikes across Ukraine, but Moscow denied any involvement in the Polish blast.
A deliberate, hostile attack on NATO member Poland could trigger a collective military response by the alliance.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday it was “unlikely” that a missile that killed two in NATO-ally Poland was fired from Russia.
“There is preliminary information that contests that," Biden told reporters at the G20 summit in Indonesia, when asked if the missile had been fired from Russia. “It is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we’ll see.”
Speaking anonymously, three US officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one amid the crushing salvo against Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure.
That assessment and Biden’s comments at the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia contradict information earlier Tuesday from a senior US intelligence official who told the AP that Russian missiles crossed into Poland.
The Polish government said it was investigating and raising its level of military preparedness. A statement from the Polish Foreign Ministry identified the weapon as being made in Russia.
President Andrzej Duda was more cautious, saying that it was “most probably” Russian-made but that its origins were still being verified.
Duda said that he has informed NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Biden that it is "highly probable" that the Polish ambassador to NATO "will request to invoke Article 4, that is
Read more on euronews.com
