The missile that killed two people in Poland was fired from the Ukrainian air defense system, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, a NATO source said.
Earlier, Biden had publicly stated that the probability of the missile being fired from Russia is low. If confirmed, this would likely alleviate concerns that the first deadly incident in a NATO country since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could lead to an escalation.
NATO ambassadors were due to hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss the explosion at a grain dryer near the Ukrainian border in eastern Poland on Tuesday, when Russia launched multiple missiles at cities across Ukraine.
Kyiv says it hit most of the incoming Russian missiles with its own air defense missiles. The Volyn region, just across Ukraine’s border with Poland, was one of many areas Ukraine says has been the target of Russian attacks.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said none of its missiles had hit closer than 35 kilometers (20 mi) from the Polish border, and photographs of the wreckage showed elements of the Ukrainian S-300 air defense missile.
Asked whether it was too early to say whether the missile was fired from Russia, Biden said: “There is preliminary information that goes against it. “I don’t want to say that until we’ve fully investigated it, but it’s highly unlikely right now,” he said. The trajectory where it fired from Russia, but we’ll see.”
After meeting with other Western leaders on the sidelines of the G-20 major economies summit, Biden said the US and NATO countries will investigate thoroughly before taking action.
The Kremlin said on Wednesday that some countries had made “baseless statements” about the incident, but Washington was relatively restrained. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Russia had nothing to do with the incident, which he said was caused by the S-300 air defense system.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the rocket landed in the village of Przewodow, about 6 kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters that it was “most likely a Russian-made missile”, but that there was no concrete evidence of who fired it. Both Russia’s long-range missiles and Ukraine’s air defense missiles use Soviet designs.
A resident, who did not want to be named, said the two victims were men who were found near the weighing area of a grain mill.
Some Western leaders have said that whoever fired the missile was ultimately responsible for Russia.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s office said in a statement after a meeting between Sunak and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, “They stressed that whatever the outcome of the investigation, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is directly responsible for the continued violence.”
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