The Warsaw government has confirmed the impact of a Russian-made missile on Polish territory. Nevertheless, Polish President Duda warns against jumping to conclusions about who is responsible. He doesn't expect a repeat.
Polish President Andrzej Duda is assuming the deadly impact of a rocket near the border with Ukraine to be a one-off incident and is calling for people to remain calm. There are no signs that today's incident will repeat itself, said Duda at night. "We don't have conclusive evidence at the moment as to who fired that missile...it was most likely a Russian-made missile," Duda said. The investigations were ongoing.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had previously confirmed the impact of a Russian-made missile. This fell at 3:40 p.m. (local time) in the village of Przewodow, the ministry said. Duda further stated that Poland will attend the North Atlantic Council meeting at NATO Headquarters on Wednesday at 10 a.m. (local time). "It is very likely that the ambassador will request activation of Article 4 or Allied consultations," he said. Article 4 provides for consultations when a member country feels threatened.
Two people were killed in an explosion in Przevodow, about six kilometers from the Ukrainian border, according to firefighters. According to media reports, the attack hit a grain drying plant. Polish broadcaster ZET attributed the explosion to Russian missiles. Russia rejected this. After an emergency meeting of its Security Council, Poland itself declared that the military was on increased readiness. "We have decided to increase the combat readiness of selected units of the Polish Armed Forces, with a particular focus on airspace surveillance," said Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
Numerous states, including Germany, demonstratively sided with the ally. US President Joe Biden assured Poland of the full support of the United States in clarifying the incident. The US government said it could not initially confirm reports of Russian missiles hitting the country. Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock also avoided specifying the cause. She wrote on Twitter that her thoughts were with "close ally and neighbor" Poland. We are in contact with the government in Warsaw and NATO.
The Russian Ministry of Defense immediately described the Polish information on the rocket hits as a "deliberate provocation". The Interfax news agency quoted the ministry as saying that the aim was to escalate the situation. There were no attacks with Russian weapons on targets near the border.
Russia launched rocket attacks on dozens of targets in Ukraine on Tuesday. The Ukrainian Air Force reported 100 shells. However, only ten achieved their goals. The leaders of the seven leading industrialized nations (G7), plus Spain and the Netherlands, all on the Indonesian island of Bali for the G20 summit, held an emergency meeting to respond to the missile attack in Poland. The G7 countries include the United States, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Great Britain and Japan. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Belgium, the Czech Republic and other countries stated in the first reactions that they were trying to get more information. "Russia's recklessness is getting out of hand," Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad wrote on Twitter.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the missiles were Russian. The situation is escalating and there must be a reaction. Ukraine had long warned that Russian actions would not be limited to Ukraine.
