Global concern over missile that killed two in Poland – ‘Possibly Russian-made’

A global alarm was raised after the launch of a rocket, which claimed the lives of two people in the village of Szewodów, in south-eastern Poland, on Tuesday evening. The Polish president, Andrzej Duda, said on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday that Warsaw still has “unshakable evidence” of who fired the missile.

“Right now, we have no hard evidence as to who fired this missile. An investigation is underway. It is probably Russian-made,” the head of state told reporters in Warsaw. At the same time, Mr. Duda ruled that this was an “isolated” incident.

The statement of the head of state followed the official confirmation, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw, of the fact that “at 3:40 p.m. (local time; 4:40 p.m. Greek time) in the village of Sevodov (…) a Russian missile fell construction, killing two citizens of the Republic of Poland”.

However, NATO and G7 member countries agreed today, during an emergency meeting of their leaders dedicated to the deadly explosions in Poland, to offer support and help to Warsaw in the ongoing investigations, their joint statement said.

The emergency meeting was convened in Bali, Indonesia by US President Joe Biden after explosions attributed by the Polish and Ukrainian governments to “Russian-made” missiles.

The US and its NATO allies are investigating the blast in Poland, but initial reports suggest it may not have been caused by a missile fired from Russia, stated today (16/11) the American president Joe Biden.

Asked about the estimates that the explosions were due to Russian missiles, the American president said that “There is preliminary information that calls this into question. I don’t want to say it before we’ve completed the investigation, but it’s unlikely, from the trajectory, that (the missile) was launched from Russia – we’ll see though.”.

It is ‘absolutely necessary to avoid an escalation of the war in Ukraine’

It is “absolutely necessary to prevent the escalation of the war in Ukraine”, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, stressed on Tuesday night, declaring that he was “very concerned” about the information regarding the deadly explosion in Poland, which according to in Warsaw was probably due to a Russian-made missile.

In the laconic press statement released by his spokesman, Mr Guterres called for a “thorough investigation” into the explosion which killed two people and could lead to a major escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, with involvement of a NATO member state, as reported by Agence France-Presse and relayed by the Athens News Agency.

Germany “stands by” Warsaw, its NATO partner

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed to Polish President Andrzej Duda the solidarity of Berlin, which “stands by” Warsaw after the death of two people on Polish territory due to the explosion of a “Russian-made” missile.

“The chancellor called President Duda and expressed his condolences. THE Poland will thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the incident in which two citizens were killed (…). Germany stands by Poland, our NATO partner,” a spokesman for Mr. Scholz said via Twitter.