DAccording to the government in Warsaw, the explosion in a Polish village near the border with Ukraine was triggered by a Russian-made rocket. The impact in the village of Przewodow happened on Tuesday at 3:40 p.m., killing two Polish citizens, the Foreign Ministry said early Wednesday morning. With the origin of the rocket, however, it is not yet clear which country used it. Both Ukraine and Russia use Soviet-designed missiles.
Warsaw has summoned the Russian ambassador, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. He stressed that on Tuesday there was a massive shelling of the entire Ukrainian territory and its critical infrastructure by the Russian army. The village of Przevodow is about 60 kilometers as the crow flies from the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, which was also the target of Russian attacks.
Combat units placed on increased readiness
After the incident, Poland put part of its armed forces on increased readiness. This also applies to other uniformed services, said a government spokesman on Tuesday evening in Warsaw. It is about specific military combat units and the combat readiness of units of the uniformed services, he said, without giving any further details.
In addition, together with the NATO allies, it was decided to check whether there were reasons to initiate the procedures under Article 4 of the NATO treaty, he said. Article 4 provides for consultations between the NATO states if one of them sees the integrity of its territory, political independence or its own security threatened.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Twitter that he had spoken to President Duda about the explosions and offered his condolences to the families of those killed. “NATO is monitoring the situation and the alliances are in close contact with each other,” wrote Stoltenberg. It is “important that all facts are now established”. Siewiera said that NATO is also discussing the possibility of activating Article 4 of the NATO treaty. That would first lead to a special session of the NATO Council. The governments of Poland and the United States later announced that Presidents Duda and Biden had spoken to each other on the phone. After the call, the American side said Biden had offered Duda America’s full support in investigating the incident. Biden also reiterated America’s ironclad commitment to NATO. Both sides agreed that the country presidents would remain in close consultation to discuss appropriate next steps as the investigation progressed.
Andrzej Duda, President of Poland, gives a press conference after the meeting of the Government Committee on National Defense.
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Image: dpa
In the early evening, the Polish broadcaster Radio Zet, citing informal sources, reported that two stray Russian rockets had landed in the village of Przewodów in the Lublin Voivodeship, about five kilometers from the border with Ukraine. This happened at 3:40 p.m. Tuesday afternoon. Two men were killed in a plant for drying grain. The Polish broadcaster TVN24 published videos intended to show the location of the events. A crater can be seen on it.
The Radio Zet journalist who first reported on the event wrote on Twitter that his military sources said there were many indications of debris from a missile launched by Ukrainian air defenses. The AP news agency, on the other hand, reported, citing a high-ranking source in American intelligence circles, that Russian missiles had hit the village. According to a report by the AFP agency, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denied that a Ukrainian missile could have hit Poland.
