(CNN) — US President Joe Biden held an emergency meeting with G7 allies and the I’LL TAKE on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, on Tuesday after Poland said a “Russian-made missile” fell in a village near the Ukrainian border killing two people.
The deadly explosion in eastern Poland, a NATO member country, has raised fears of a further escalation in the months-long war between Russia and Ukraine.
This is what we know:
What Poland says
The President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, assured this Wednesday that there is “no indication” that the missile that fell on Tuesday in Poland was an “intentional attack” against the country.
“There are no indications that it was an intentional attack against Poland. Most likely it was a Russian-made S-300 rocket. We have no proof at the moment that it was a missile fired by the Russian side,” he said in a statement. a tweet.
He added that there were “many indications” that it was an air defense missile, which “unfortunately fell on Polish territory.”
The Polish Foreign Ministry had said Tuesday night that a “Russian-made missile” struck the Polish village of Przewodów, near the Ukrainian border, killing two people.
Questions without answer
The circumstances surrounding the incident, which marks the first time a NATO country has been directly attacked during the nearly nine-month conflict between Russia and Ukraine, remain unclear, including who fired the missile and where it was fired from.
Both Russian and Ukrainian forces have used Russian-made munitions during the conflict, and Ukraine has deployed Russian-made missiles as part of its air defense system.
What the US says
Two officials briefed on initial US assessments said it appears the missile that killed two people in eastern Poland on Wednesday originated in Ukrainedespite the fact that it was Russian-made.
One of the officials said that assessment is what President Joe Biden seemed to be alluding to in his earlier comments when he said the missile was “unlikely” originating from Russia,
The officials said the intelligence assessments had been discussed at the emergency meeting called by Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali and would also be the topic of conversation at a meeting of NATO ambassadors in Brussels.
The joint statement after the G7 meeting was also deliberately ambiguous about the incident, placing far more emphasis on the dozens of attacks that occurred in the hours before the missives crossed into Poland.
A US National Security Council spokesman declined to comment on reports that the Russian-made missile that landed in eastern Poland and killed two people was fired by Ukrainian forces trying to intercept a Russian attack. .
“We have no comment and will not confirm this report. As the president said today, we support Poland’s ongoing investigation to find out exactly what happened,” the spokesman said.
Earlier, President Biden said preliminary information suggests the missile that landed in Poland is unlikely to have been fired from Russia after consulting with allies at the G20 Summit in Indonesia.
“I don’t want to say that [fue disparado desde Rusia] until we fully investigate,” Biden continued. “It’s unlikely trajectory wise that it was fired from Russia. But we’ll see.”
Why this incident increases tensions
NATO member Poland said Warsaw is considering invoking defense alliance Article 4 to discuss its concerns and will also increase the combat readiness of some Polish troops.
Article 4 is a method of consultation that allows alliance members from 30 countries to submit an issue, usually one of security, that affects them for discussion at the North Atlantic Council, its decision-making body.
Reports from the field
A local resident told CNN that he heard a terrifying “whoosh” as a shell flew over the town.
CNN’s Matthew Chance spoke to a custodian at a local school who said the force of the explosion rattled the windows of classrooms, even though students were not inside when the explosion occurred.
Polish media reported that a shell hit a farm in the country, around the same time that Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.
Reaction of world leaders
Speaking after an emergency meeting with G7 and NATO allies at the G20 summit in Bali, President Biden said preliminary information suggests the missile was unlikely to have been fired from Russia.
Biden said allies would support Poland’s investigation, which would “collectively determine our next step as we investigate and proceed,” adding there was “total unanimity” among leaders.
What Russia says
In a statement Tuesday night, Russia’s Defense Ministry said the reports of the explosion were “a deliberate provocation to escalate the situation.”
“There were no attacks on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border,” it said. He added that the photos of the wreckage published by the Polish media “of the scene in the village of Przewodow have nothing to do with Russian weapons.”
What comes next
In a joint statement after the G20 summit, the NATO and G7 leaders said they offered Poland “full support” and would “remain in close contact” to determine the appropriate next steps.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was scheduled to chair an emergency meeting of alliance ambassadors on Wednesday morning in Brussels to discuss the incident.