President Joe Biden told reporters there is preliminary evidence to suggest the missile behind yesterday’s deadly explosion in Poland was “unlikely” to have been fired from Russia.
The international community was alarmed on Tuesday when reports broke that Russian missiles were fired into Poland and killed two people near the country’s border with Ukraine. Since Poland is a member of NATO, the explosions generated public speculation that the supposed Russian attack would prompt NATO’s invocation of Article 5, which would be a dramatic escalation in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The development led to Biden holding an emergency roundtable while he remains in Indonesia for the G20 summit. The president spoke to reporters after that, and while he expressed U.S. support for an investigation into the Poland explosion, he threw cold water on the notion that Russia was behind it.
“There is preliminary information that contests that,” Biden told reporters when asked if Russia fired the missile. “It is unlikely, in the lines of the trajectory, that it was fired from Russia, but we’ll see.”
Biden’s remarks corroborate those of Polish President Andrzej Duda, who said the projectile was “probably a Russian-made S-300 missile.” However, he characterized the explosion as an “unfortunate accident,” saying there are indications that it was a Ukrainian air defense missile that fell into Polish territory.
Watch above via ABC.