Russia must bear blame

NATO’s preliminary findings on deadly blast

LONDON: The Kremlin must bear responsibility for a deadly explosion in Poland, NATO has said, after preliminary findings pointed to the blast being caused by Ukrainian air defences trying to intercept a Russian missile barrage.

The blast, first attributed to a Russian missile strike, had threatened to escalate the Ukraine war into a conflict between Russia and NATO, causing moments of panic at the G20 summit in Bali.

G7 leaders held an emergency meeting at the summit and condemned Russia’s “barbaric” missile attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday.

After a tense night, Poland’s president joined Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretarygeneral, on Wednesday in declaring the missile strike an “unfortunate accident”.

President Andrzej Duda said: “We have no evidence that it was a rocket launched by Russian forces. However, there are many indications it was a missile used by Ukraine’s anti-missile defence.” Washington said it had “full confidence” in Poland’s findings.

Mr Stoltenberg said the explosion “was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks”. He added: “Let me be clear: this is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine.”

The strike, which killed two civilians, threatened to escalate the conflict because of the NATO doctrine of collective self-defence, making an attack on one an attack on all, and compelling allies to respond should the country targeted invoke the alliance’s Article 5.

NATO has stuck only to supplying weapons to Ukraine for use within its borders and not deploying the alliance’s own military to fight Russia for fear of intensifying the conflict to one between nuclear powers. That has frustrated Ukraine, which has urged NATO to enter the fight on its side.

On Wednesday night Ukraine leader Volodymyr Zelensky rejected NATO’s explanation, saying: “I have no doubt that it was not our missile or our missile strike.”

He demanded that his inspectors be allowed access to the site of the blast in eastern Poland, which Warsaw has said depends on US agreement as well. “Can we not say the final conclusions? Do we have the right to be in the investigation team? Of course,” Mr Zelensky said.

Moscow said none of its missiles came within 35km of the Polish border. Russia’s foreign ministry summoned Poland’s ambassador to be told that Moscow was not responsible.

Mr Zelensky’s denials are likely to frustrate Western allies who have supported Ukraine but resisted his entreaties to enter the war. Equally, he has bristled over the decision by American officials to air the view that Kyiv should be more open to negotiations to end the conflict.

Mr Zelensky, who has signed a law saying no Ukrainian government may negotiate with a Kremlin led by President Vladimir Putin, said he would allow talks only if they were conducted in public.

Some of the confusion may have arisen from the fact that many of Ukraine’s systems are Russian-made, including the S-300 missile system that is still its most widespread air defence.

“Most likely, it was a Russian-made S-300,” Mr Duda said.