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Biden Says 'Unlikely' Missile That Struck Poland Fired From Russia; NATO To Hold Emergency Meeting

By RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service November 16, 2022

U.S. President Joe Biden has said that it is "unlikely" a missile that killed two people in NATO-member Poland was fired from Russia, citing information about the trajectory of the projectile.

Biden, speaking after convening emergency talks with leaders of Western allies in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of a G20 summit, pledged support for Poland's investigation into what it called a "Russian-made" missile.

Polish media said two people were killed in the blast in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland about 6 kilometers from the border with Ukraine.

Russia denied its missiles hit Polish territory, saying the reports were "a deliberate provocation" to escalate the situation.

NATO envoys are to hold an emergency meeting on November 16 at the request of alliance member Poland to discuss the incident. Alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg will then hold a news conference, NATO said.

The meeting is reported to be held on the basis of the alliance's Article 4 according to which members can raise any issue of concern when any NATO member feels its "territorial integrity, political independence, or security" are at risk.

Biden stressed that investigations into the incident were still ongoing, but said there was "total unanimity" among world leaders in supporting Poland in its efforts to establish the circumstance of the incident.

"There is preliminary information that contests" that Russia fired the missile, Biden told reporters. "It is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we'll see. I'm going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened."

Russia's Defense Ministry said: "There were no strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border by Russian weapons. The wreckage published by the Polish mass media from the scene of the incident in the settlement of Przewodow has nothing to do with Russian weapons."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said later he had no information on the explosion in Poland.

Three U.S. officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian projectile amid an overwhelming wave of strikes against Ukraine's electrical infrastructure on November 15. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Russian missiles hit Poland in a "significant escalation" of the conflict. He did not provide evidence of Russia's involvement.

Polish President Andrzej Duda had told reporters earlier that it was "most likely a Russian-made missile," but there was no concrete evidence of who fired it, and the incident was a one-off.

Biden spoke by phone with Duda, offering "full U.S. support for and assistance with Poland's investigation," the White House said.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and French President Emmanuel Macron -- all leaders of NATO member states -- voiced solidarity with Poland.

Poland is protected by NATO's commitment to collective defense -- enshrined in Article 5 of its founding treaty -- but the alliance's response will likely be heavily influenced by whether the incident was accidental or intentional.

Russia's ambassador to Poland has been summoned to provide "immediate detailed explanations" and the military had been put on heightened alert after an emergency national security council meeting, Polish authorities said.

"There has been a decision to raise the state of readiness of some combat units and other uniformed services," government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters after the meeting in Warsaw, adding that "our services are on the ground at the moment working out what happened."

The incident came as Russia unleashed one of the heaviest missile attacks since the start of the war on sites across Ukraine aimed at crippling the country's energy infrastructure.

Ukrainian officials said that more than 90 missiles were fired in the attacks.

Biden on November 16 called those attacks "barbaric," and Zelenskiy described them as a "slap in the face" for the G20 summit.

The summit has been dominated by the Ukraine war, with members struggling to find common ground on Russia's unprovoked invasion of its neighbor.

In a joint statement issued November 16, leaders came together to condemn the war's effects but remained divided on assigning blame.

With reporting by Reuters, AP, AFP, and BBC

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-poland-missile- nato/32133101.html

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Biden Says 'Unlikely' Missile That Struck Poland Fired From Russia; NATO To Hold Emergency Meeting