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Emergency NATO meeting after deadly Poland hit

Russian missiles cross into Poland

NATO ambassadors will hold an emergency meeting within hours to discuss an explosion in Poland reportedly caused by a stray Russian missile.

Two people were killed in the explosion in Przewodow, a village in eastern Poland about 12 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, firefighters said on Wednesday.

The Associated Press earlier cited a senior US intelligence official as saying the blast was due to Russian missiles crossing into Poland.

At Poland’s request, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will chair an emergency meeting in Brussels to discuss “this tragic incident,” spokesperson Oana Lungescu told CNN.

Poland has also convened an emergency meeting of its national security officials.

Poland’s foreign ministry has also summoned the Russian ambassador to explain why a Russian-made missile fell on Polish territory killing two people, a ministry spokesperson said.

“In connection with this event, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Professor Zbigniew Rau summoned the ambassador of the Russian Federation to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and demanded immediate detailed explanations,” ministry spokeperson Lukasz Jasina said in a statement, CNN reported.

It remains unclear where the projectiles came from, but they landed in the NATO member’s territory about the same time as Russia launched its biggest wave of missile attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.

Members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation are committed to collective defence. That means a Russian strike on Poland could risk dramatically widening the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which began with Moscow’s invasion in February.

In Washington, the Pentagon, White House and US State Department said they could not corroborate the report and were working with the Polish government to gather more information.

The State Department said the report was “incredibly concerning”. US President Joe Biden has spoken to the Polish President since the incident.

“I spoke with President Andrzej Duda of Poland to express my deep condolences for the loss of life in eastern Poland and offer our full support for Poland’s investigation of the explosion,” Mr Biden tweeted on Wednesday.

“We will remain in close touch to determine appropriate next steps as it proceeds.”

Germany and Canada said they were monitoring the situation and Norway said it was seeking details.

In Australia, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she was deeply concerned by reports Russian missiles had strayed into Poland.

“We again call on Russia to withdraw its forces and end its illegal, immoral war,” she said.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian missiles hit Poland in a “significant escalation” of the conflict.

He did not provide evidence of the strikes.

Russia’s defence ministry denied Russian missiles hit Polish territory, describing reports as “a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the situation”.

“No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction,” it said.

The Kremlin did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

Russia pounded cities across Ukraine with missiles on Tuesday in attacks Kyiv said were the heaviest wave of missile strikes in almost nine months of war.

Some hit Lviv, which is less than 80 kilometres from the border with Poland.

Fabrice Pothier, former head of policy planning in the NATO secretary-general’s office, told Sky TV that it was too early to say whether the possible strike was intentional or accidental.

But the events were enough to trigger NATO treaty articles under which Poland would call a NATO meeting “to consult each other, to assess the threat and to take concrete action”, Mr Pothier said.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki has called an urgent meeting of a government committee for national security and defence affairs, government spokesman Piotr Muller said on Twitter.

Latvian Deputy Prime Minister Artis Pabriks said the situation was “unacceptable” and it could lead to NATO providing more anti-aircraft defences to Poland and Ukraine, a view Mr Pothier endorsed.

“Every inch of #NATO territory must be defended!,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said on Twitter.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said, according to BNS newswire: “We are discussing with our allies how to respond to what happened jointly and decisively.”

– with AAP

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