Polish President Andrzej Duda sees no evidence of a deliberate attack on his country. The rocket that fell in the east was made in Russia, but there is no evidence that it was fired from there, he said in Warsaw on Wednesday. It is very likely that the missile was used by the Ukrainian air defenses.
It was probably an unfortunate incident. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said at the same press conference that it might not be necessary to initiate the procedure under Article 4 of the NATO treaty. However, the possibility is still being examined. Article 4 provides for closer consultations among members of the military alliance when the security of any of them is threatened.
According to information from the German Press Agency, US President Joe Biden also announced on Wednesday at a crisis meeting with other heads of state and government of NATO and G-7 countries in Bali that it was an anti-aircraft missile from Ukraine. A missile from the S-300 system had struck. The S-300 missile system is of Soviet design and is an essential part of the Ukrainian air defense system.
After the crisis meeting, Biden publicly stated that there was information about the trajectory that would prevent it from being shot down by Russia. “I’ll make sure we find out exactly what happened,” he added. Moscow denied having fired on targets in the Ukrainian-Polish border area and spoke of a targeted provocation.
According to the Polish government, a “Russian-made missile” hit the eastern Polish village of Przewodow six kilometers from the border. Two people were killed on a farm. Poland placed part of its armed forces on a higher level of readiness.