Kiev eyes joint investigation of missile incident in Poland
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Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov states that Ukraine has requested urgent access to the explosion site in Poland.
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A police officer stands at a checkpoint near the scene of a blast in Poland. (AP)
Intelligence presented at the G20 summit affirmed that the missile that hit Poland was fired by Ukraine, however, it seems that Ukraine is still pushing its own narrative.
Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said, on Wednesday, that Kiev wants to conduct a joint inquiry into the missile mishap in Poland and needs access to the crash site.
"We advocate for a joint examination of the incident with the missile’s landing in Poland. We are ready to hand over evidence of the Russian trace that we have. We are expecting information from our partners, based on which a conclusion was made that it’s Ukraine's air defense missile," Danilov tweeted.
He also noted that Ukraine has requested urgent access to the explosion site.
What you need to know
Initial investigation indicated, according to the Associated Press, citing US sources, that the missile that impacted Poland was launched by Ukrainian forces in response to an inbound Russian missile.
According to Reuters, US President Joe Biden stated that the missile that killed two in Poland was not fired by Russia.
On Wednesday, Biden summoned a meeting of leaders in Bali, Indonesia, on the sidelines of the G20 summit, to investigate the Poland missile incident, which they were concerned could mean the spill of the war into neighboring countries. Leaders from NATO members such as Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom, as well as non-member Japan and EU delegates also participated.
When asked if it was still too soon to determine if the missile was launched from Russia, Biden responded "There is preliminary information that contests that. I don't want to say that until we completely investigate it, but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia but we’ll see.”
Biden also vouched that before taking any action, the US and NATO nations will conduct a thorough investigation.
According to Polish officials in Warsaw, their government is expected to ask for a NATO meeting under Article 4 of the treaty so that the allies can discuss, as well as bring up the matter at a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday.
The White House further stated that Biden informed Polish President Andrzej Duda during a phone conversation that Washington has an "ironclad commitment to NATO" and will back Poland's inquiry.
The EU, the Netherlands, and Norway said they were looking for further information, and Germany and Canada said they were keeping an eye on the issue. In addition to Britain conducting an "urgent" investigation into the allegation, French President Emmanuel Macron also requested a verification attempt.
