TheCable

United States President Joe Biden says preliminary information suggests that the missile that hit Poland was “unlikely” to have been fired by Russia.

On Tuesday, a missile killed two people at Przewodów, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine.

Since February, there have been military attacks between Russia and Ukraine after the former invaded the latter’s country.

The explosion at the grain facility near the Ukrainian border has sparked concerns about possible World War III.

Owing to the incident, Poland’s military was placed on high alert as North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) ambassadors called for an emergency meeting on Wednesday morning.

However, the Russian defence ministry, in a statement on Tuesday, denied reports that the country is responsible for the attack, saying the claim is a “deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation”.

“No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, in a tweet on Tuesday, blamed Russia for the attack, saying the world must be fully protected against “terrorist Russia”.

Had a call with 🇵🇱 President @AndrzejDuda. Expressed condolences over the death of Polish citizens from Russian missile terror. We exchanged available information and are clarifying all the facts. 🇺🇦, 🇵🇱, all of Europe and the world must be fully protected from terrorist Russia.

— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) November 15, 2022

On Wednesday, Biden was quoted to have told NATO and G7 Leaders at the G20 Summit in Bali that preliminary information “contests” the earlier reports that Russia is responsible for the attack on Poland.

“There is preliminary information that contests that. I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate it, but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia,” Reuters quoted Biden.

After the meeting, western leaders at the Bali summit, in a statement, condemned what they described as “barbaric missile attacks that Russia perpetrated on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure”.

The western leaders promised to offer assistance to Poland amid the ongoing investigation to determine the source of the attack.

“We discussed the explosion that took place in the eastern part of Poland near the border with Ukraine. We offer our full support for and assistance with Poland’s ongoing investigation. We agree to remain in close touch to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation proceeds,” the statement reads.