Poland and NATO say Ukrainian defense likely caused deadly blast

Poland’s president and the secretary-general of NATO said Wednesday that a Ukrainian air defense missile most likely caused a deadly explosion on Polish territory a day earlier but emphasized that Kyiv was not to blame for trying to defend itself.

President Andrzej Duda noted that Russian forces had launched a barrage of missile strikes on Ukraine on Tuesday. He said that early indications suggested that Ukrainian efforts to counter the barrage had caused an “unfortunate accident” in Poland — not a direct attack on his country.

“We have no evidence at the moment that it was a rocket launched by Russian forces,” Duda told reporters. “However, there are many indications that it was a missile that was used by Ukraine’s antimissile defense.”

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NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said after a meeting of the alliance’s envoys that a preliminary analysis suggests the incident “was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks.”

“Let me be clear. This is not Ukraine’s fault,” he said. “Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”

Ukraine’s foreign minister has denied that one of their missiles was involved in the explosion, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called an “escalation” by Russia. Russia denied involvement and said that it did not aim any missiles at the border with Poland on Tuesday.

Duda also emphasized that the events in Poland came amid a “massive, unprecedented” Russian attack on Ukraine.

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“Ukraine defended itself — which is obvious and understandable — also by firing missiles whose task was to knock down Russian missiles,” he said. “Therefore, we were dealing with a very serious clash caused by the Russian side, as well as the entire conflict. Yesterday’s clash is certainly borne by the Russian side.”

In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, questions swirled over whether Poland might invoke Article 5 of the NATO charter, which commits its members to mutual defense, stating that an attack on one is an attack on all.

But Poland had suggested that instead it might invoke Article 4 of the charter, which states that any NATO member country can request a formal consultation among all members on an issue of concern.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters on Wednesday that “it may not be necessary” to do so since there currently is “nothing to indicate that it was an attack on Polish territory.”