Poland’s president Andrzej Duda said he expected his country would call for an emergency meeting of Nato members on Wednesday after “Russian-made” missiles strayed over into the country killing two people.
The incident is the first time that the territory of a Nato country has been struck during the near nine month Ukraine war, and follows an intense 100-missile attack by Russia on Ukraine, which saw millions lose power and supply in neighbouring Moldova also disrupted.
The Polish president said he had spoken to Joe Biden, the US president, Rishi Sunak, the UK prime minister, and Germany’s Olof Scholz and told them it was “highly likely” that Poland would request the special consultative Nato meeting.
It was not clear who launched the missile that landed at the village of Przewodów a few miles away from the Ukrainian border on Tuesday afternoon, Duda added, but he and other officials said it was likely to be “Russian-made”.
That could mean it was a Russian munition which may have veered off course, but it could also have been a missile from Ukrainian S-300 air defence system, weapons which experts said were originally made in Russia.
Poland’s government said it had summoned Moscow’s ambassador for an explanation but Russia’s defence ministry denied its missiles crossed into Poland, calling the reports a “deliberate provocation” in a statement.
“No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian rockets. The wreckage published by the Polish media from the scene in the village of Przewodów has nothing to do with Russian weapons,” the Russian defence ministry added.
Two farmers were killed and a tractor destroyed after a large explosion at 3.40pm in the eastern village, which left Polish and Nato officials scrambling to confirm what had happened and to coordinate a response.
The special Nato meeting is set to be convened under article 4 of the Nato treaty, which allows for all allies to be brought together for talks when the “territorial integrity, political independence or security” of any member has been threatened.
The White House said that Biden offered “full support” for Poland’s investigation to Duda in their call. The US president also “reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Nato” and called for the two countries to remain in close touch.
Earlier, Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland’s prime minister, had urgently convened the country’s council of ministers for national security and defence, in response to the explosion to evaluate the situation and coordinate a response.
After the meeting, Polish officials said the country was also placing some of its military units on a heightened state of alert, and that it would increase surveillance of its airspace.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the incident was a “significant escalation” of the conflict. “Russian missiles hit Poland,” Zelenskiy said. He did not provide evidence.
Some analysts said they believed photographs of missile debris at the scene showed a Ukrainian S-300 air defence system that would have been engaged in shooting down a Russian missile, but it was not possible to corroborate those reports.
A deliberate attack on a Nato member could in theory lead to the invocation of the alliance’s article 5, which states that an attack on one member of the military alliance is considered an attack against all. But the Nato treaty is highly unlikely to be triggered by an accidental attack.
Article 4 of the treaty is a lesser step that allows Nato members to meet without necessarily triggering any consequent action. World leaders were also expected to meet at the G20 in Indonesia on Wednesday to discuss the incident.
Late on Tuesday night, Zelenskiy said power had been restored to 8 million of the 10 million Ukrainians who had been disconnected after what he called Russia’s “terrorist attack” across the country.
Ukraine warned its energy situation was “critical” as a result of the Russian strikes, which hit 15 energy sites as well as residential buildings, with reports that half of Kyiv, 80% of Lviv and many other regions were without power.
Water, heating and internet traffic were also disrupted – while the air raid sirens could no longer work because of the loss of electricity – in the most intense missile attack seen since the start of Russia’s autumn bombing campaign.
Earlier Ukraine’s president, addressing the G20 by video link, called on the leaders to support Ukraine to end the war on its terms – the primary one being that Russian troops leave all of Ukraine, including the areas it occupied in 2014.
Zelenskiy, who had earlier addressed the world’s leaders in Bali with his peace proposals, released a short video message acknowledging the scale of the attack. “We are working, we will restore everything, we will survive,” he added.
Russia began targeting Ukraine’s electricity grid last month, and waves of strikes have knocked out more than 40% of the country’s energy infrastructure, as the country heads towards a winter where temperatures can reach -10C or even -20C.
The attacks appeared deliberately timed for the middle of the two-day G20 summit – a wilful attempt by Russia’s Vladimir Putin to defy the majority of the international community, which was planning to release a communique condemning his country’s assault on his neighbour.
The draft declaration included language noting “most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine” and stressed that “it is causing immense human suffering and exacerbating existing fragilities in the global economy” – although the US continued to press for stronger criticism.
Putin is not present at the G20 but his veteran foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, complained of what he called the “politicisation” of the meeting, and blamed the west for unleashing “a hybrid war” in Ukraine before flying out of the meeting.
Andriy Yermak, the chief of Zelenskiy’s staff, said missile strikes were a direct response to the president’s speech. “Does anyone seriously think that the Kremlin really wants peace? It wants obedience. But at the end of the day, terrorists always lose,” he added.
Zelenskiy also called for the creation of a special war crimes tribunal and compensation for all the damage caused by the invasion.
Three residential buildings in Kyiv were among those hit, according to the city’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko. He said the buildings were in Kyiv’s Pechersk district, a residential area just north of the presidential administration. Klitschko said medics and rescue workers were on their way to the scenes – and that a body had been recovered from one of the buildings.
Moldova’s infrastructure minister said the country had suffered a “massive power outage” for a time on Tuesday after one of its key power lines was automatically disconnected as a safety measure as a consequence of the bombing in Ukraine. “Russian aggression against Ukraine directly affects our country,” Andrei Spinu said.
