US President Biden is said to have announced in Bali before other heads of state that the missile that struck Poland could have been an anti-aircraft missile from Ukraine. Warsaw put combat units on alert.
After the rocket hit in eastern Poland with two dead, there are indications that the projectile is an anti-aircraft missile from Ukraine. According to information from the dpa news agency, US President Joe Biden announced this on Wednesday at a meeting with other heads of state and government from NATO and G-7 countries in Bali. He is said to have spoken of a missile from the S-300 system. The Soviet-designed system is an integral part of Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.
The AP news agency also reported on preliminary US findings, according to which the rocket that killed two people in the village of Przewodow on Tuesday evening probably came from Ukraine. It is the first such incident in Russia's nearly nine-month war of aggression against Ukraine.
Several sources in Bali said Moscow was responsible for the incident in Poland by shelling Ukraine. This applies even if it was actually a Ukrainian anti-missile.
Polish President Andrzej Duda had previously struck a more cautious tone, according to a statement by the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. It is not yet clear who fired the bullet. It was "most likely" made in Russia, but this is still being verified.
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The country's foreign ministry had previously made a commitment and confirmed the impact of a Russian-made missile in the east of the NATO member country. Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau summoned the Russian ambassador and demanded "immediate, comprehensive explanations". Poland put part of its armed forces on increased readiness. The Polish leadership held two crisis meetings.
Moscow immediately denied the reports and spoke of a "provocation". The ministry said that no targets in the Ukrainian-Polish border area were fired at. The photos of alleged debris disseminated in the Polish media also had nothing to do with Russian weapon systems, it said.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called an emergency meeting of NATO ambassadors for Wednesday. The meeting will be about the "tragic incident" in Poland, said a spokeswoman. Poland, a neighboring country of Ukraine, is a member of the EU and the Western Defense Alliance.
Stoltenberg warned against hasty reactions: "It is important that all facts are established," wrote the Norwegian on Twitter after a phone call with Duda. "NATO is monitoring the situation and the alliance partners are coordinating closely," emphasized Stoltenberg. He spoke neither of rockets nor of Russia, but rather of an "explosion in Poland". Stoltenberg did not respond to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba's call for an "immediate" NATO summit.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy clearly attributed the incident to Moscow. “This is a Russian missile attack on collective security! This is a very significant escalation,” he said. "We have to take action."
At the same time, Ukraine rejected allegations that one of its rockets had hit the neighboring country. "Russia is now spreading a conspiracy theory that it was allegedly a Ukrainian air defense missile that fell on Poland," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba wrote on Twitter. "That is not true."
In Article 4, the NATO states promise "consultation" in all cases in which a member sees "its territorial integrity, political independence or security" at risk. However, this does not necessarily result in common steps.
According to information from the alliance, the government in Warsaw could theoretically invoke Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty and demand a discussion between the 30 allies. Such a decision has not yet been made, it said in Brussels.
Article 4 is significantly less far-reaching than the alliance case regulated in Article 5. This provides for a collective response in the event of an "armed attack" on one or more member states. Article 5 has only been invoked once by a member country in NATO's 73-year history: by the United States after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
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