Missile strike Wasn’t a Russian attack, Poland, NATO say
PRZEWODOW, Poland — NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday that a missile strike in Polish farmland that killed two people appeared to be unintentional and was probably launched by air defences in neighbouring Ukraine. Russia had been bombarding Ukraine at the time in an attack 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 SecretaryGeneral Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the 30-nation military alliance in Brussels,
echoed the preliminary Polish findings. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, disputed them and asked for further investigation.
The assessments of Tuesday’s deadly missile landing appeared to dial back the likelihood of the strike triggering another major escalation in the nearly ninemonth-old Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had targeted Poland, that could have risked drawing NATO into the conflict.
Still, Mr Stoltenberg and others laid overall but not specific blame on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
“This is not Ukraine’s fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility,” Mr Stoltenberg said.
Mr Zelenskyy told reporters he had “no doubts” about a report he received from his top commanders “that it wasn’t our missile or our missile strike.” Ukrainian officials should have access to the site and take part in the investigation, he added.
“Let’s say openly, if, God forbid, some remnant (of Ukraine’s airdefenses) killed a person, these people, then we need to apologise,” he said. “But first there needs to be a probe, access — we want to get the data you have.”
On Tuesday, he called the strike “a very significant escalation.”
Before the Polish and NATO assessments, US President Joe Biden had said it was “unlikely” that Russia fired the missile but added: “I’m going to make sure we find out exactly what happened.”
A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman in Moscow said no Russian strike Tuesday was closer than 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the Ukraine-Poland border. The Kremlin denounced Poland’s and other countries’ initial response and, in rare praise for a US leader, hailed Mr Biden’s “restrained, much more professional reaction.” ■ Polish President Andrzej Duda says 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.
REPUBLICANS have secured the 218 seats needed to win a majority in the lower chamber of the US Congress, the BBC’s US partner CBS News projects.
The party’s majority in the House of Representatives is razor-thin, but it is enough to stall President Joe Biden’s agenda for the next two years.
It marks a return to divided government, with Democrats retaining power in the Senate.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump has announced he will run again.
Split control of Washington was ushered in by last week’s midterm elections, in which the Republicans — who had hoped to win back control of both chambers — underperformed expectations.
The Republican party is now projected to win between 218-223 seats in the 435-seat House, according to CBS.
The blame for last Tuesday’s showing has largely landed on two party leaders: Mr Trump and Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell.
On Tuesday night, the ex-president formally announced a third bid for the White House in 2024 from a ballroom at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
He said voters had “not yet realised the full extent and gravity of the pain our nation is going through”, but would change their minds over the next two years as he predicted things would get worse.
In Washington on Wednesday, Mr McConnell was re-elected as Senate minority leader, fending off a challenge from fellow Republican Rick Scott of Florida.
This was the first challenge to his lengthy leadership tenure in 15 years, amid bitter infighting over who is to blame for the failure to win back a majority in the Congress’ upper chamber.
The two men butted heads frequently in the lead-up to the midterms and Scott had said he is “not satisfied with the status quo”.
A day earlier, California congressman Kevin McCarthy was elected as the Republicans’ nominee to replace Democrat Nancy Pelosi as the next Speaker of the House.
■