US President Joe Biden says it is “unlikely” the missile that killed two people in Poland was fired from Russia. Biden called an emergency meeting at the Bali G20 summit with G7 and Nato leaders today (November 16) that included UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Japan’s premier Fumio Kishida and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.
The Prime Minister’s plans for the G20 gathering in Indonesia were thrown into disarray by the incident, which has sparked concern in Ukraine and among the war-torn nation’s allies in Europe and beyond. Poland said the Russian-made missile fell in the eastern part of the country, killing two people in a blast that marked the first time since the invasion of Ukraine that Russian weapons came down on a Nato member.
Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky decried the strike as “a very significant escalation” of the war, while Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the government was raising its military preparedness.
A statement from the Polish Foreign Ministry identified the missile as being made in Russia. But president Andrzej Duda was more cautious about its origin, saying that officials did not know for sure who fired it or where it was made. He said it was “most probably” Russian-made but that is being still verified.
Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg called an emergency meeting of the alliance’s envoys to discuss events. Poland’s statement did not address the circumstances of the strike, including whether it could have been a targeting error or if the missile could have been knocked off course by Ukrainian missile defences.
If Russia had deliberately targeted Poland, it would risk drawing the 30-nation alliance into the conflict at a time when it is already struggling to fend off Ukrainian forces. Polish media reported that the strike took place in an area where grain was drying in Przewodow, a village near the border with Ukraine.
The Russian Defence Ministry denied being behind “any strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish border” and said in a statement that photos of purported damage “have nothing to do” with Russian weapons. Polish foreign minister Zbigniew Rau summoned the Russian ambassador and “demanded immediate detailed explanations”, the government said.
Russia pounded Ukraine’s energy facilities yesterday (November 15) with its biggest barrage of missiles yet, striking targets across the country and causing widespread blackouts. The barrage also affected neighbouring Moldova. It reported massive power outages after the strikes knocked out a key power line that supplies the small nation, an official said.
The missile strikes plunged much of Ukraine into darkness and drew defiance from Mr Zelensky, who shook his fist and declared: “We will survive everything.” In his nightly address, the Ukrainian leader said the strike in Poland offered proof that “terror is not limited by our state borders”.
“We need to put the terrorist in its place. The longer Russia feels impunity, the more threats there will be for everyone within the reach of Russian missiles,” Mr Zelensky said. Russia fired at least 85 missiles, most of them aimed at the country’s power facilities, and blacked out many cities, he said.
More than a dozen regions — among them Lviv in the west, Kharkiv in the northeast and others in between — reported strikes or efforts by their air defences to shoot missiles down. At least a dozen regions reported power outages, affecting cities that together have millions of people. Almost half of the Kyiv region lost power, authorities said.
Dutch foreign minister Wopke Hoekstra took to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after meeting his Ukrainian counterpart and, from his place of safety, described the bombardment as “an enormous motivation to keep standing shoulder-to-shoulder” with Ukraine.
The disruption to Mr Sunak's schedule came as he was due to hold a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. He had been warned by critics that he could be seen as “weak” for “drifting into appeasement with China”, after he appeared to soften his rhetoric to declare the country a “systemic challenge” rather than a “threat”.
In talks with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Sunak was set to confirm a deal allowing 3,000 young professionals from India to work in the UK for two years. The visa agreement comes as he is trying to finalise a delayed trade deal with India, but it could set him on a collision course with Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who has opposed relaxing immigration controls as part of any trade talks.
For stories from where you live, visit InYourArea.
