Missile strike killing two appears to be ‘unfortunate accident’ not ‘intentional attack’

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The missile strike that killed two people in Poland appears to be an
“unfortunate accident” and not an “intentional attack”, the country’s
president said on Wednesday, amid signs it was fired by a Ukrainian air
defence unit.

Polish President Andrzej Duda’s comments immediately eased fears that the
explosion on Tuesday at a grain facility near the Ukrainian border could
trigger a dramatic escalation in Vladimir Putin’s war.

Within hours of the blast, Mr Biden convened an emergency meeting of
several leaders gathered in Bali, Indonesia, for a G20 summit to discuss
the incident.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/missile-poland-ukraine-russia-latest-news-nato-joe-biden-rishi-sunak-putin-b1040230.html

Leaders from Nato members Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Netherlands,
Spain and Italy attended, as well as non-Nato member Japan and
representatives from the European Union.

Three US officials told the Associated Press that preliminary assessments
suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian
missile amid a huge wave of attacks.

Ukraine still maintains stocks of former Soviet and Russian-made weaponry,
including the S-300 air-defense missile system

At least one independent expert also suggested the missile had come from a
Ukrainian air defence unit.

Moscow has strongly denied Russian forces fired the missile.

“There is an attempt to provoke a direct military clash between NATO and
Russia, with all the consequences for the world,” Dmitry Polyansky, the
head of the permanent mission of Russia to the United Nations, said on his
Telegram channel.

If it turns out it that it came from a Ukrainian defence unit, it would
hand the Kremlin a victory in the information war and leave Kyiv having to
explain why it had so swiftly accused Russia of being behind the strike.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian missiles hit Poland in
a “significant escalation” of the conflict.

But he did not provide evidence of Russia’s involvement.

“All of Europe and the world must be fully protected from terrorist
Russia,” he said in a tweet after a phone call with Mr Duda.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland was increasing the
readiness of some military units, and called on all Poles to remain calm.

The State Department described the earlier report that it could have been
a Russian missile as “incredibly concerning”.

Other Western allies said they were monitoring the situation, and urgently
assessing information.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said Kyiv had warned of the
danger Russian missiles posed to neighbouring countries and called for a
no-fly zone to be imposed.

“We were asking to close the sky, because sky has no borders. Not for
uncontrolled missiles. Not for the threat they carry for our EU & NATO
neighbours. Gloves are off. Time to win,” he said in a Twitter post.

After meeting Mr Biden in the sidelines of the G20 meeting, Rishi Sunak,
who had been woken at 5am to be told about the Poland missile strike,
tweeted on Wednesday: “Positive meeting with @POTUS (President of the
United States) today, our strong relationship is important for
international challenges the world is facing.

### - lol @ our prime minister being woken at 5am with such shocking/scary
news haha (sits bolt upright: wot??? pfffffft!) his subsequent
message/tweet being perhaps somewhat revealing (of the code words used in
such circumstances) had it 'actually' been an attack upon nato...

russia hopefully being unlikely to overreact to such a blatant/obvious
provocation on ukraine's part due to their gains now made on the
information-front that can only be embarrassing to nato...