A lethal explosion occurred Tuesday at a grain processing facility in Poland close to the border with Ukraine, in response to Polish media retailers, and prime authorities officers later referred to as an emergency assembly.
The reason for the explosion within the village of Przewodow, about 4 miles north of the Ukrainian border, was not instantly clear. A Polish radio station reported that two individuals had been killed.
At a Pentagon briefing in Washington, Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder mentioned that the Protection Division was conscious of media stories saying that two Russian missiles had landed in Poland, however mentioned that U.S. protection officers had no corroborating data.
Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, and president, Andrzej Duda, convened a gathering of the Nationwide Safety Council in response to a “disaster state of affairs,” a authorities spokesman, Piotr Mueller, instructed reporters. He requested reporters to not publish unconfirmed data, and mentioned extra data can be forthcoming.
Russia’s Protection Ministry denied any involvement within the explosion. On Telegram, the ministry wrote that any statements by Polish officers or media retailers about Russian missiles hitting the village had been a “deliberate provocation.”
“No strikes on targets close to the Ukrainian-Polish state border had been made,” the ministry wrote.
Russia launched a widespread missile assault on Ukraine on Tuesday, with roughly 100 missiles that had been aimed primarily on the nation’s electrical infrastructure. Ukraine’s Volyn area, the place Russian rocket strikes had been reported on Tuesday, lies throughout the border from Przewodow.
That raised the potential for the explosion being linked to an errant missile, or the stays of 1 that had been focused by Ukraine’s air protection programs.
The Ukrainian air drive mentioned the protection programs had shot down 70 of greater than 90 incoming missiles on Tuesday. A fraction of 1 destroyed missile struck a residential constructing in Kyiv, killing one particular person.
Though the reason for the explosion remained unclear, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, seized on stories of doable Russian involvement, calling it proof of “a really vital escalation.”
Mr. Zelensky alluded to Poland’s membership in NATO and blamed Russia for what he referred to as an “assault on collective safety.”
For the reason that starting of the invasion, Ukraine’s Western allies, together with the US, have sought to maintain the preventing restricted to Ukrainian territory and keep away from direct confrontation between the alliance and Russia, at the same time as they’ve provided a gentle stream of weapons to Kyiv.
A NATO official mentioned the alliance was “wanting into these stories and intently coordinating with our ally Poland.”
Vedant Patel, a U.S. State Division spokesman, mentioned the US was working with the Polish authorities and different members of NATO to collect extra data.
Requested whether or not it will matter if any injury was discovered to be unintentional or intentional, he mentioned, “In fact that’s one thing that might be vital.”
Steven Erlanger, Julian E. Barnes, Richard Pérez-Peña Monika Pronczuk, Michael Crowley and Carly Olson contributed reporting.