A Ukrainian air defence missile, and not a stray Russian missile, fell on a village near the Polish-Ukrainian border, government spokesman Petr Müller confirmed.
On Tuesday, a missile landed in the village of Przewodów in eastern Poland, resulting in the death of two people. Russian troops carried out a large rocket raid on Ukrainian territory on the same day and it was initially believed they were responsible for the attack.
The narrative quickly changed, indicating that the missile could also have been an element of Ukraine’s anti-aircraft defences in which the self-destruct mechanism failed to work. On Thursday, a Polish government spokesperson confirmed that the missile belonged to the Ukrainians.
“The materials gathered by our and allied services indicate that the reason for this incident was Ukraine’s defensive actions against Russia’s offensive actions,” said Müller.
“Russia unlawfully interferes with the territorial integrity of another country and here there is no doubt as to who bears moral responsibility for this type of situation,” he added.
Przewodów was visited by the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda on Thursday.
“It is definitely unfortunate that there was an accident, absolutely unintentional, it was not that this missile was aimed at Poland, it was not that this could be treated as an attack on Poland,” the president noted.
“There is a war going on across our border, Russia fired several hundred missiles against Ukraine, Ukraine defended itself, and in the course of these actions, unfortunately, what happened happened. No one wanted to harm anyone in Poland, let alone deprive anyone of life,” Duda explained.
Reports that Poland was hit by a Ukrainian missile were denied by both Kyiv and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the missile must have been Russian.
(Bartosz Sieniawski | EURACTIV.pl)
Source: euractiv.com
