Fri | Jul 3, 2026

Poland, NATO say missile strike wasn’t a Russian attack

Published:Wednesday | November 16, 2022 | 9:04 AM
A police officer stands at a checkpoint near the scene of a blast in Przewodow, Poland, Wednesday, November 16, 2022. Poland said Wednesday that a Russian-made missile fell in the country’s east, though US President Joe Biden said it was “unlikely” it was fired from Russia. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

PRZEWODOW, Poland (AP) — NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people did not appear to be an intentional attack, and that air defences in neigh boring Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile against a Russian bombardment that savaged its power grid.

“Ukraine's defence was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda.

“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the 30-nation military alliance in Brussels, echoed the preliminary Polish findings, saying: “We have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack.”

The initial assessments of Tuesday's deadly missile landing appeared to dial back the likelihood of the strike triggering another major escalation in the nearly nine-month-old Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, that could have risked drawing NATO into the conflict.

Still, Stoltenberg and others laid overall but not specific blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin's war.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.