The White House said Wednesday that Russia is ‘ultimately responsible’ for the explosion that killed two people in Poland, despite it ‘most likely’ coming from Ukraine.
National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement Wednesday, ‘whatever the final conclusions may be, it is clear that the party ultimately responsible for this tragic incident is Russia, which launched a barrage of missiles on Ukraine specifically intended to target civilian infrastructure.’
‘Ukraine had – and has – every right to defend itself,’ she added.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, ‘this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland.’
At the same press conference, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said that ‘attempts were made’ to contact the Russians about the missile and had ‘no success.’
Milley said he did speak with his Ukrainian counterpart.
Polish President Andrzej Duda, speaking after a meeting of his security council Wednesday, said he has seen ‘no evidence’ the missile was fired by Russia and it was in fact ‘highly probable’ the Soviet-era S-300 rocket came from Ukraine.
There is no indication that Poland was deliberately targeted, he added.
‘Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,’ according to Duda, who added that Russia bears ultimate responsibility for the strike because Putin began the war in Ukraine.
Watson expressed that the White House had ‘full confidence’ in the Polish investigation.
‘We have seen nothing that contradicts President Duda’’s preliminary assessment that this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland,’ she said.
President Joe Biden was traveling back from Asia Wednesday making refueling stops in Guam and Hawaii.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Wednesday, ‘this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland’
Bogdan C, a tractor driver, and Boguslaw W, a warehouse manager at a grain silo, both aged in their 60s, died when the missile landed on them around 3.40pm Tuesday local time
At the same press conference, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley (right) said that ‘attempts were made’ to contact the Russians about the missile and had ‘no success’
President Joe Biden was traveling back from Asia Wednesday making refueling stops in Guam and Hawaii (pictured)
Jens Stoltenberg, head of NATO, also backed that analysis – saying the strike was likely a Ukrainian missile, there is ‘no indication’ it was deliberate and there is ‘no indication’ Russia is preparing an attack on NATO. However, he added: ‘This is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.’
Ludivine Dedonder, the Belgian defence minister, said preliminary investigations by his security forces indicate the same thing – adding to reports that emerged in the early hours suggesting Biden had also told NATO leaders the rocket was from Ukraine.
Hours after the incident, Volodymyr Zelensky had blamed it on ‘Russian missile terror’, and Kyiv is yet to concede its own missile was involved. Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, said Kyiv wanted access to the site and still saw a Russian ‘trace’ behind the attack.
The news came after a nervous night in which it looked like NATO and Russia could be heading for a direct confrontation that would have risked triggering World War Three, and it underlines the risk that a single mistake or miscalculation in Ukraine could yet spark such a conflict.
Mateusz Morawiecki, the Polish Prime Minister, said it may no longer be necessary to trigger NATO Article 4 – which calls for discussions among allies over a threat – but that allies will strengthen air defences in the region.
However, that will come as small comfort to the families of the two men killed, who were identified by Polish media as a tractor driver called Bogdan C and a warehouse foreman called Boguslaw W, both aged in their 60s.
Polish medics pick their way through rubble following the missile strike on Przewodow on Tuesday, which killed two people
A chunk of metal is pictured lying in the dirt after the explosion. The Polish president has said the missile appears to be ‘Russian-made’, while Joe Biden has said it does not appear the missile was fired ‘from Russia’
World leaders (clockwise from top left) Olaf Scholz, Pedro Sanchez, Emmanuel Macron, Rishi Sunak and President Joe Biden hold a tense conversations on the sidelines of the G20 summit after the strike on Poland
Andrzej Duda (left) said today that the missile appears to have been fired by Ukrainian air defence, while Jens Stoltenberg (right) concurred – though added that Russia still bears ultimate responsibility
Joe Biden chaired an emergency meeting of NATO leaders – including close allies Japan and the EU – at the G20 summit in Indonesia as they work out how to respond after the missile strike
Biden said it does not appear the missile was fired ‘from Russia’ but stressed investigations are ongoing. Sunak said allies are determined to get to the bottom of what has happened
Rishi Sunak and Canada’s Justin Trudeau – both NATO members – hold talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali
Smoke rises over the town of Przewodow in eastern Poland after a missile struck on Tuesday afternoon, killing two people
Police probe the site where a missile strike killed two men in the eastern Poland village of Przewodow, near Ukraine
The strike on Przewodow came amid the largest Russian missile bombardment on Ukraine yet during the war, with Kyiv’s air force saying 90 weapons were fired in consecutive salvos – mostly targeting energy infrastructure
Poland missile victims revealed: First pictures emerge of driver and warehouse worker
These are the faces of two Polish farm workers killed when a stray Ukrainian missile crashed down on top of them yesterday, sparking a major diplomatic incident.
Bogusław Wos, 62, the foreman of a grain warehouse, and Bogdan Ciupek, 60, a tractor driver, were killed around 3.40pm Tuesday when an S-300 rocket hit the town of Przewodow in eastern Poland, near the border with Ukraine.
Warehouse supervisor Bogusław Wos, 62 (left), and tractor driver Bogdan Ciupek, 60 (right), have been named as the two men killed in a missile strike on Poland yesterday afternoon
Horrified residents reported hearing ‘strange whistles’ as the missile flew overhead and then ‘a massive explosion, about a thousand decibels’ as it slammed down.
Neighbours say Boguslaw had worked in the grain silo warehouse for 40 years and lived with his wife and elderly mother-in-law, who they both looked after.
The Przewodow native is reported to have two grown up children who now live in the southern Polish city of Krakow.
Bogdan, who worked as a driver at the grain drying plant, lived in the nearby village of Setniki.
A neighbour told local media: ‘We all know each other, it’s not a big town.
‘We have never experienced such a tragedy. They were good people.’
Another told news portal interia.pl: ‘Boguslaw went to work as usual and at around 4pm his wife realized that something bad had happened.
‘Some of the neighbors, out of compassion and curiosity, wanted to visit his wife but she was in a frenzy, she did not want to talk, she looked into the distance and cried.
‘She was in terrible shock.’
It is thought that Bogdan had just arrived at a grain-drying warehouse driving a tractor-trailer full of grain when the missile hit.
Boguslaw was reportedly waiting for him, to help unload the cargo.
Locals said the pair were working to offload grain at a drying facility when the missile hit, killing them instantly.
The blast happened around 900ft from a housing compound where around 500 people live. If the missile had struck it, casualties would have been much higher.
Horrified residents reported hearing ‘strange whistles’ as the missile flew overhead and then ‘a massive explosion, about a thousand decibels.’
Neighbours say that Boguslaw who had worked in the grain silo warehouse for 40 years lived with his wife and elderly mother-in-law, who they both looked after. He is reported to have two grown up children who live in Krakow.
Bogdan C., who worked as a driver for the plant, lived in the nearby village of Setniki. A neighbour told local media: ‘We all know each other, it’s not a big town.
‘We have never experienced such a tragedy. They were good people.’
Another told news portal interia.pl: ‘Boguslaw went to work as usual and at around 4pm his wife realized that something bad had happened.
‘Some of the neighbors, out of compassion and curiosity, wanted to visit his wife but she was in a frenzy, she did not want to talk, she looked into the distance and cried. ‘She was in terrible shock.’
Zelensky, addressing the G20 for a second time Wednesday, said the strike on Poland was ‘a true statement brought by Russia for the G20 summit.’
‘There is a terrorist state among you, and we are defending ourselves against it. That is the reality,’ he added, though Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov had already departed the conference late Tuesday.
Mr Sunak, speaking as the G20 broke up with a joint statement condemning Russian aggression in Ukraine, said allies are still working to ‘establish the facts’ of what happened in Poland.
He added: ‘The persistent threat to our security and global asphyxiation has been driven by the actions of the one man unwilling to be at this summit – Vladimir Putin.
‘There isn’t a single person in the world who has not felt the impact of Putin’s war.’
‘What we agreed this morning is that it is important to establish the facts and this is exactly what is happening as we speak. We will get to the bottom of what happened.
‘[The strike] was happening at a time when the G20 was gathered trying to find resolution to some of the world’s challenges. I think it shows utter contempt for the international rules-based system.’
The dramatic development came on another day of bloodshed and destruction in Ukraine, with more than 100 Russian missiles landing in major population centres, killing three and cutting the power supply to millions.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke by phone Tuesday with Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda, offering his condolences following reports of the alleged Russian missile strike on Polish soil.
‘Expressed condolences over the death of Polish citizens from Russian missile terror. We exchanged available information and are clarifying all the facts. Ukraine, Poland, all of Europe and the world must be fully protected from terrorist Russia,’ Zelensky said in a tweet.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Twitter: ‘Spoke with President Duda about the explosion in Poland. I offered my condolences for the loss of life. NATO is monitoring the situation and Allies are closely consulting. Important that all facts are established.’
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen meanwhile declared: ‘Alarmed by reports of an explosion in Poland, following a massive Russian missile strike on Ukrainian cities. I extend my condolences and my strongest message of support and solidarity with Poland and our Ukrainian friends,’ adding she was in close contact with Polish security officials.
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a tweet said Britain will support allies as they establish what happened.
‘We are also coordinating with our international partners, including NATO,’ Sunak said.
French president Emmanuel Macron said: ‘The consequences of this conflict go beyond European borders’.
Latvian deputy prime minister Artis Pabriks tweeted: ‘My condolences to our Polish brothers in arms. Criminal Russian regime fired missiles which target not only Ukrainian civilians but also landed on Nato territory.’
Estonia’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs added: ‘Estonia is ready to defend every inch of Nato territory.’
And UK defence commentator Rear Admiral Chris Parry said it was ‘time to station advanced anti-air systems on Nato’s borders and intercept anything that looks like it would cross those borders’.
Russia on Tuesday unleashed one of its largest missile barrages to date at Ukraine, leaving the country’s energy network ‘critical’ with rolling blackouts.
More than 100 rockets were fired at cities across the country, hitting civilian buildings and power stations, the Ukrainian air force said.
G20 Leaders raise garden hoes for a group photo during a tree planting event at the Taman Hutan Raya Ngurah Rai Mangrove Forest on the Indonesian resort island of Bali
Emmanuel Macron (left), Joe Biden (centre) and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva (right) speaking during the G20 summit in Indonesia overnight
Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo lead heads of state during a tour of a mangrove seeding facility during the G20 summit
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan and French President Emmanuel Macron attend a session at the G20 in Indonesia
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping after taking part in the closing session at the G20 Leaders Summit in Bali
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo take part in the handover ceremony at the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali overnight
Delegates applaud at the handover ceremony during the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Bali, Indonesia
Delegates attend the handover ceremony at the G20 Leaders’ Summit, in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia
Polish president Andrzej Duda (left) said the missile appeared to be ‘Russian made’ but investigations are ongoing and called for ‘calm’. President Putin (right) has not spoken, but the Kremlin denied any involvement and called claims a ‘provocation’
Volodymyr Zelensky directly blamed Russia for the strike, saying it is a ‘serious escalation’ that demands and response
Ukraine ‘blows up Russian oil depot 190 miles from Moscow in drone strike’
Images show a suspected Ukrainian military drone attack on a Russian oil depot just 190 miles from Moscow.
The 4am attack ‘blew up an oil depot in the settlement of Stalnoi Kon’, said regional governor Andrey Klychkov.
Unverified images on social media showed what appeared to be a single rupture on the side of an oil storage tank, blackened by soot.
The logo of Russia’s state-controlled pipeline operator Transneft can be seen on the tank, which state television said was believed to be empty. The alleged drone attack left a crater some 12ft deep, according to one report.
Since the start of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, several fuel or ammunition depots in southern Russia have been attacked by drones or helicopters, with authorities blaming Ukrainian forces.
Ukrainian official Anton Geraschenko drew attention to the depot blast without claiming responsibility.
He posted an image of the site in flames – which it was not possible to verify – and a caption: ‘Smoking in the wrong place reached the Oryol region.’
Pictures later showed significant damage to the oil storage complex.
The site is around 100 miles from the border with Ukraine.
If it was Ukrainian, it would be a record reach for a Kyiv attack on Russia.
Images show a suspected Ukrainian military drone attack on a Russian oil depot just 190 miles from Moscow
The 4am attack ‘blew up an oil depot in the settlement of Stalnoi Kon’, said regional governor governor Andrey Klychkov
The bombardment left half of Kyiv, where at least one civilian died, and the whole city of Zhytomyr without power.
Strikes were also reported in the western city of Lviv – the closest large urban settlement to the Polish border – and caused partial blackouts.
Kharkiv, Vinnytsia, Rivne, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Ivano-Frankivsk were also targeted.
The bombardment came as German newspaper Der Spiegel reported that documents leaked from the German military said one of the country’s top generals, Eberhard Zorn, ordered the country’s army to put itself on a war footing in the face of ‘existential’ threats.
The 68-page policy paper was produced in September, according to Der Spiegel. In it, Zorn called for the complete overhaul of the German military and told commanders to prepare themselves for war.
‘Attacks on Germany can potentially occur without warning and with great, possibly even existential, damage,’ he wrote.
Attacks on Ukraine came just hours after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky – speaking via videolink from Kyiv – told world leaders at the G20 Bali summit that he is ready to end the war provided Russia withdraws its troops from areas it currently occupies.
Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov – speaking later at the summit in Indonesia – accused the West of waging ‘hybrid war’ in Ukraine and Kyiv of ‘prolonging’ the conflict, without mentioning Russia’s own involvement in the fighting.
‘There is an attack on the capital. According to preliminary information, two residential buildings were hit in the Pechersk district,’ Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
‘Several missiles were shot down over Kyiv by air defence systems. Medics and rescuers are at the scene of the strikes.’
Moments later, he added: ‘Another hit in the Pechersk district. Multi-storey building.’
Andriy Yermak, head of Zelensky’s staff, said the attack was a response to the president addressing the G20 – ramping up pressure on Russia to stop its attacks.
‘Does anyone seriously think that the Kremlin really wants peace? It wants obedience. But at the end of the day, terrorists always lose,’ Yermak said.
Russian forces have in recent weeks been targeting energy infrastructure across Ukraine and has launched barrages of missiles and swarms of drones.
Around a third of Ukraine’s power-generating capacity has been taken out, causing rolling blackouts across the country just as winter hits.
Kyiv was last targeted by Russian forces nearly one month ago on October 17.
Russia faced mounting diplomatic pressure Tuesday to end its war in Ukraine, as G20 allies and critics alike rued the painful global impact of nearly nine months of conflict.
A draft communique obtained by AFP showed the world’s 20 leading economies coming together to condemn the war’s effects, but still divided on apportioning blame.
The summit has shown that even Russia’s allies have limited patience with a conflict that has inflated food and energy prices worldwide and raised the spectre of nuclear war.
Risking diplomatic isolation, Russia was forced to agree that the war in Ukraine – which Moscow refuses to call a war – has ‘adversely impacted the global economy’.
Mateusz Zub, 30, holds his mouth in shock as he reacts to the news that two people died in a missile hit on his home town
Members of the Polish police searching the countryside around where the missiles hit walk past a sign for the local town, Przewodow, where two men were killed
Polish police man a checkpoint along the road to a village where the missile exploded on Tuesday afternoon, local time
Police officers walk near the site of an explosion in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland near the border with Ukraine
At least three Russian missiles hit the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Tuesday, with mayor Vitali Klitschko saying they all struck residential buildings
It also agreed that ‘the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons’ is ‘inadmissible’, after months of its president Vladimir Putin making such threats.
The embattled Russian leader has skipped the summit, staying at home to reckon with a string of embarrassing battlefield defeats and a grinding campaign that threatens the future of his regime.
Rubbing salt in Russia’s wounds, Zelensky – fresh from a visit to liberated Kherson – delivered an impassioned video appeal to G20 leaders.
He said they could ‘save thousands of lives’ by pressing for a Russian withdrawal.
The United States and its allies used the summit to broaden the coalition against Russia’s invasion and scotch Moscow’s claims of a conflict of East versus West.
Western officials offered a sobering assessment of the conflict yesterday, indicating their belief the conflict could ‘grind on’ through 2023. They consider the war to have reached a stalemate.
