Polish President, Andrzej Duda has said that the missile that hit his country on Tuesday was “probably an accident” from Ukraine’s air defenses.
In a potential escalation in the months-long Ukraine war, a “Russian-made” missile struck NATO-member Poland killing two people.
The missile landed outside the rural Polish village of Przewodow, about four miles (6.4 kilometers) west from the Ukrainian border on Tuesday afternoon, roughly the same time as Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.
The circumstances surrounding the incident, which marks the first time a NATO country has been directly hit during the almost nine-month conflict, remain unclear.
Reacting to the missile attack, Poland’s President said: “There is no indication that this was an intentional attack on Poland. Most likely, it was a Russian-made S-300 rocket. We have no proof at the moment that it was a missile fired by the Russian side.”
“There is a high chance” that one of the Ukrainian air defense missiles fell on Poland’s territory,” he said.
“Probably it was shot by the Ukrainian Air Defense, and unfortunately, it fell onto Polish territory,” he noted.
“It wasn’t a big explosion, but still it was an explosion,” the president added. He reiterated that nothing shows that it was an “intentional attack” against Poland.
Duda also said that Poland has increased combat readiness of its forces. He also said that he spoke to US President Joe Biden about increasing combat readiness of the US Air Force Base in Poland.
The missile hitting eastern Poland marked the first time a NATO country had been directly hit during the conflict.
A meeting between Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and the summoned Russian ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreyev, following the landing of a deadly missile on Polish territory lasted “only four minutes,” according to a government spokesperson.
“He (Andreyev) was received, but without any exchange of courtesy, without shaking hands, by Minister Zbigniew Rau and the delegation accompanying him. Our diplomatic note was read to the ambassador, which is similar to the communiqué we published.
“The ambassador accepted the position and left,” Lukasz Jasina, a spokesman for Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said.
Jasna told Polish national radio that the Russian ambassador, who was summoned by Poland on Tuesday after the missile struck eastern Poland, appeared around midnight for the meeting.
In another interview, Poland’s Deputy Foreign Minister Paweł Jabłoński said on RMF FM Radio that Foreign Minister Rau demanded Andreyev to explain the situation during the meeting.
“There is a very high probability that we are dealing with a consequence of Russia’s actions,” Jabłoński said.
“These consequences for the first time since the outbreak of the war – this is something that we assumed could happen, but it happened yesterday – affected Poland, Polish territory, Polish citizens died.”
