Yesterday, Breaking Digest reported that, according to AP News, at least two Russian missiles crossed into NATO territory and killed two people in Poland on Tuesday.
Multiple mainstream media outlets frantically reported that Russia fired a missile at a target in Poland.
The Russian Defense Ministry vehemently denied being behind any strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish border.
Three anonymous U.S. officials told AP News that preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one.
Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday there is “no indication” that a missile that landed on Polish territory, killing two people, was an intentional attack, and that air defenses in Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era missile.
More from AP News:
PRZEWODOW, Poland (AP) — NATO member Poland and the head of the military alliance both said Wednesday there is “no indication” that a missile that came down in Polish farmland, killing two people, was an intentional attack, and that air defenses in neighboring Ukraine likely launched the Soviet-era projectile to fend off a Russian assault that savaged its power grid.
“Ukraine’s defense 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 Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the 30-nation military alliance in Brussels, echoed the preliminary Polish findings, saying: “We have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack.”
The initial assessments of Tuesday’s deadly missile landing appeared to dial back the likelihood that the incident would trigger another major escalation in the nearly 9-month Russian invasion of Ukraine. If Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, it could have risked drawing NATO into the conflict.
Still, 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,” Stoltenberg said.
