Poland calls deadly missile strike ‘unfortunate accident’, easing fears of escalation

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Poland said a missile blast that killed two civilians appears to have been an “unfortunate accident’’ involving Ukrainian air defence rather than a deliberate attack by Moscow.

However, Nato allies were adamant that Russia still bore responsibility for the incident, which initially threatened to escalate the war in Ukraine to a frightening new level.

Two men were killed in explosions near the weighing section of a grain facility in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland about three miles from the border with Ukraine.

It involved fragments of a Russian-made missile, and came during Russia’s missile blitz on Ukrainian infrastructure, raising initial fears that Nato would become directly involved in the war under the collective defence clause of the military alliance.

However, Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, said: “From the information that we and our allies have, it was an S-300 rocket made in the Soviet Union, an old rocket and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side.”

He added: “There is a high probability that the rocket was used by the Ukrainian defence forces.”

Ukraine’s Volyn region, just across the border from Poland, was one of many areas targeted by Russia’s countrywide attacks on Tuesday – one of the largest aerial bombardments since Vladimir Putin’s February invasion.

Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said: “We have to remember that this happened as Russia launched a wave of strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure.”

He added: “Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”

Russia fiercely denied launching the strike, but Ukraine said Russia was directly responsible and called for the airspace over the country to be closed.

“There is a full-scale war initiated and conducted by Russia,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.

“And there is constant mass shelling of the entire territory of Ukraine with cruise missiles. Therefore, countries bordering Ukraine are constantly in the zone of extreme risk due to regular Russian missile attacks. These are absolutely obvious things – intent, increased risks, missiles, war provoked and escalated only by Russia.

“Moreover, unpunished evil always escalates... the result is missiles on the territory of Poland. Of course, we have to wait for the results of the investigation. But one thing can be said with certainty: closing the airspace over Ukraine would also close the sky in Europe. Time to make decisions.

Mr Zelensky blamed the strike on “Russian missile terror”.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Western leaders were guilty of “another hysterical, frenzied, Russophobic reaction that was not based on any real data,” while the Polish ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the foreign ministry.

Britain’s prime minister Rishi Sunak and his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau agreed “whatever the outcome of that investigation, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is squarely to blame for the ongoing violence”, Downing Street said after a meeting between the pair in Bali.

Additional reporting by Liam James