The missile that that fell in eastern Poland on Tuesday was most likely launched by Ukrainian air defense forces, Polish president, Andrzej Duda, has announced on Wednesday.
“Most likely, a missile made by Russia in the 1970s has fallen on Polish territory. We have no evidence that it was launched by Russia,” Duda told reporters.
“There is a high probability that it was a Ukrainian air defense missile,” he added.
The missile that fell in eastern Poland was launched by the Ukrainian military, the Associated Press news agency reported on Wednesday, citing US officials.
The Associated Press cited US officials as saying that preliminary data indicate that a Ukrainian projectile was launched to intercept a Russian missile targeting a Ukrainian energy infrastructure site.
As reported by AP, this information runs counter to the previous statements by US officials that allegedly a Russian missile had fallen on Polish territory.
The Polish Foreign Ministry earlier claimed that a Russian-made missile had allegedly crashed in the village of Przewodow in eastern Poland’s Lublin Voivodeship close to the border with Ukraine, killing two people.
However, Polish President Andrzej Duda said that the missile’s exact affiliation had not been established yet.
Biden Says Missile Unlikely Fired from Russia
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden said that the available preliminary information contested the claims that the missile falling in Poland was launched from Russia.
Speaking to reporters at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia on Wednesday morning following early consultations with NATO members, Biden was asked whether it was “too early to say whether this missile was fired from Russia.”
“There is preliminary information that contests that,” Biden answered, according to Russia Today. He added: “I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate, but it is unlikely, in the minds of the trajectory, that it was fired from Russia. But we’ll see. We’ll see.”
Russia: Missile Which Hit Poland Was Ukrainian
Russia’s Defense Ministry said, in a statement on Wednesday, that Russian troops delivered no strikes against targets close to the Ukrainian-Polish border.
⚡Russian Defence Ministry:
❗️ The footage of the wreckage in Przewodów has been identified beyond a shadow of a doubt as elements of S-300 air defence guided missile fired by the Ukrainian Air Force.
👉 https://t.co/Um0JL8V5r3 pic.twitter.com/WOJf1uHRVF
— MFA Russia 🇷🇺 (@mfa_russia) November 16, 2022
The ministry stressed that the country’s military experts analyzed photos of the projectile’s parts that were published by media and “identified them as elements of a missile from the S-300 air defense system used by the Air Force of Ukraine.”
The ministry added that, on that day, Russian aircraft and ships conducted “massive” strikes on Ukrainian command centers and energy infrastructure.
“The high-precision strikes were carried out only against targets on Ukrainian territory and no closer than 35 kilometers (21.7 miles) from the Ukrainian-Polish border,” it said, as cited by RT.
Erdogan Says Russia Uninvolved in Missile Attack
Meanwhile on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Russia is uninvolved in the incident of a missile falling on Polish soil.
“I have to respect the position of Russia, which has said that it is not its missile. This is important for us,” Erdogan said, replying to a question from TASS, following the results of his participation in the G20 summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The Turkish leader also called for a detailed probe into the incident, pointing to what he felt were important statements by Biden, TASS news agency reported.
“[German Chancellor Olaf] Scholz has said they are in touch with each other as six NATO countries are. There has also been Biden’s statement. I believe that insisting that the missiles were Russian-made will exacerbate this issue. We are trying to bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table as soon as possible. In this regard, we believe that such a method as provocations is not the right one. The path to peace lies through dialogue,” Erdogan said.
Kremlin sees no reasons for escalation in S-300 missile incident in Poland
The fragments of the missile that fell in Poland on Tuesday do not give any reason for an escalation. Warsaw could immediately say that those were fragments of an S-300 missile having nothing to do with Russia, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the media on Wednesday.
“No, I don’t know anything about this,” he said in response to a question whether the Russian authorities had contacted the United States and NATO in order to prevent an escalation.
“But the hard fact is that there was no reason for an escalation. The Poles had all opportunities for stating at once that those were fragments of an S-300 missile. Accordingly, all experts would have immediately realized that the Russian Armed Forces had nothing to do with that missile.”
Peskov stressed that Russia was in no way to blame for this situation.
“No, we don’t see [any guilt],” he said when asked by foreign media whether Russia was to blame for the incident in Poland and if it was indirectly connected with a series of explosions on the territory of Ukraine.
“As for the incident in Poland, Russia has nothing to do with it. Let us call things by their proper names,” Peskov stressed.
He described Europe’s reaction to the incident as another example of frenzied Russophobia, which had no real data to rely on.
“In fact, high-ranking officials in different countries were making statements without having any idea of what exactly happened or what the real cause was,” he stated.
Peskov pointed out that this incident showed once again that “one should never rush to pronounce judgements and statements that can escalate the situation, still more so at such crucial moments; no hasty statements should be made before receiving accurate information.”
The Kremlin spokesman pointed to a much more restrained reaction from Washington as an example.
“In this case, it makes sense to pay attention to the restrained and far more professional response of the American side and the American president,” he said.
Peskov noted that communication channels between the defense ministries of Russia and the United States did exist. He underscored again “a rather restrained reaction of the Americans, which was a stark contrast to the absolutely hysterical reactions of the Polish side and a number of other countries.” Peskov advised everyone to put questions to Warsaw about why that happened and “to ask Polish officials to be more reserved and more balanced and professional, whenever they talk about such sensitive and potentially dangerous subjects.”
Source: Agencies
