Poland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) confirmed early Wednesday morning local time that a “Russian-made missile dropped” onto a village inside its territory near the Ukrainian border, killing two Polish citizens.
“Therefore, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Zbigniew Rau summoned the ambassador of the Russian Federation to Polish MFA and demanded immediate and detailed explanation.”
It’s not clear whether the missile strike was intentional or done in error.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decried it as “a very significant escalation” of his country’s war with Russia.
The strike marks the first time in Ukraine’s war with Russia that Russian weapons landed inside a NATO country. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said NATO is monitoring the situation and that allied countries are “closely consulting.”
Russia Rejects Claims of Involvement
Russia has rejected claims it was involved and accused Polish media and officials of trying to deliberately provoke an escalation of the Moscow-Kyiv war by involving a NATO member country.“Russian firepower has launched no strikes at the area between Ukrainian-Polish border. The wreckage published by Polish mass media from the scene in Przewodow have no relation to Russian firepower.”
Reports on Tuesday claimed two missiles hit near the Polish town of Przewodow. Polish news outlets showed a destroyed farm vehicle and an image of a crater.