PRZEWODOW, Poland — NATO member Poland and the pinnacle of the navy alliance each mentioned Wednesday {that a} missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two individuals seemed to be unintentional and was most likely launched by air defenses in neighboring Ukraine.
Russia had been bombarding Ukraine on the time in an assault that savaged its energy grid.
“Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions, and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” mentioned Polish President Andrzej Duda. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a gathering of the 30-nation navy alliance in Brussels, echoed the preliminary Polish findings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, nonetheless, disputed them and requested for additional investigation.
The assessments of Tuesday’s lethal missile touchdown appeared to dial again the chance of the strike triggering one other main escalation within the practically 9-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had focused Poland, that might have risked drawing NATO into the battle.
Still, Stoltenberg and others laid total however not particular blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s warfare.
“This is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility,” Stoltenberg mentioned.
Zelenskyy advised reporters he had “no doubts” a few report he obtained from his high commanders “that it wasn’t our missile or our missile strike.” Ukrainian officers ought to have entry to the positioning and participate within the investigation, he added.
“Let’s say openly, if, God forbid, some remnant (of Ukraine’s air-defenses) killed a person, these people, then we need to apologize,” he mentioned. “But first there needs to be a probe, access — we want to get the data you have.”
On Tuesday, he known as the strike “a very significant escalation.”
Before the Polish and NATO assessments, U.S. President Joe Biden had mentioned it was “unlikely” that Russia fired the missile however added: “I’m going to make sure we find out exactly what happened.”
A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman in Moscow mentioned no Russian strike Tuesday was nearer than 22 miles from the Ukraine-Poland border. The Kremlin denounced Poland’s and different nations’ preliminary response and, in uncommon reward for a U.S. chief, hailed Biden’s “restrained, much more professional reaction.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”