Today there is more information about the missile that fell into Poland on Tuesday and that caused consternation among world leaders as they feared that it signaled an escalation of the war by Vladimir Putin.
According to the New York Times, Poland’s president and the secretary general of NATO said Wednesday that a Ukrainian air defense missile most likely caused a deadly explosion on Polish territory a day earlier, but emphasized that Kyiv was not to blame for trying to defend itself.
President Andrzej Duda noted that Russian forces had launched a barrage of missile strikes on Ukraine on Tuesday. He said that early indications suggested that Ukrainian efforts to counter the barrage had caused an “unfortunate accident” in Poland — not a direct attack on his country.
“We have no evidence at the moment that it was a rocket launched by Russian forces,” Mr. Duda told reporters. “However, there are many indications that it was a missile that was used by Ukraine’s antimissile defense.”
Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, said after a meeting of the alliance’s envoys that a preliminary analysis suggests the incident “was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks.”
“Let me be clear. This is not Ukraine’s fault,” he said. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”
Ukraine’s foreign minister has denied that one of their missiles was involved in the explosion, which President Volodymyr Zelensky has called an “escalation” by Russia. Russia denied involvement and said that it did not aim any missiles at the border with Poland on Tuesday.
