Two people have been killed after Russian missiles crossed into Poland, according to a senior US intelligence official.
Polish media reported that two people died after a projectile struck an area where grain was drying in Przewodow, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine. Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller confirmed that top leaders, including Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, are holding an emergency meeting due to a “crisis situation”.
It is the first time a Russian attack on Ukraine has killed people in a NATO country since the start of the war. Under the 'collective defence clause' of NATO's founding treaty, an attack on one NATO nation is considered an attack on all NATO nations.
READ MORE : No apology, a last minute confession, massive pay rises - the housing bosses who failed Awaab Ishak
It is understood that the UK Government is aware of the reports, which emerged on Tuesday evening, and is urgently seeking clarity.
A Nato official: “We are looking into these reports and closely co-ordinating with our ally Poland.”
News that Russian missiles had crossed into Poland immediately prompted alarm amid fears of any escalation in Ukraine’s conflict with Russia.
However, little information is so far known about how the incident might have occurred.
Polish government spokesman Piotr Mueller did not immediately confirm the information but said top leaders were holding an emergency meeting due to a “crisis situation”.
Polish media reported that two people died on Tuesday afternoon after a projectile struck an area where grain was drying in Przewodow, a Polish village near the border with Ukraine.
Russian airstrikes had been targeting energy facilities in Ukraine - causing power blackouts. A senior official warned that the situation was “critical” and urged Ukrainians to “hang in there” as neighbourhoods went dark.
The aerial assault, which resulted in at least one death in a residential building in the capital, Kyiv, followed days of euphoria in Ukraine sparked by one of its biggest military successes in the nearly nine-month war — the retaking last week of the southern city of Kherson. At least a dozen regions reported strikes, which caused multiple emergency blackouts.
A Ukrainian air force spokesman said Russia fired around 100 missiles. President Volodymyr Zelensky put the number at 85.
Mr Zelensky warned that more attacks may be coming but defiantly vowed: “We will survive everything.” A senior official, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said the barrage was “another planned attack on energy infrastructure facilities”.
“Most of the hits were recorded in the centre and in the north of the country. In the capital, the situation is very difficult,” Mr Tymoshenko wrote on Telegram.
Russia has in recent months increasingly resorted to targeting Ukraine’s power grid, seemingly hoping to turn the approach of winter into a weapon by leaving people in the cold and dark. While city after city reported attacks, Mr Tymoshenko appealed to Ukrainians to hang on and acknowledged the severity of the situation.
Among regions where officials reported strikes were Lviv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne in the west, and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the north east. Several missile strikes also hit Kryvyi Rih, Zelenskyy’s native city, according to its mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul.
In Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said authorities found a body in one of three residential buildings that were struck in the capital, where emergency blackouts were also announced by power provider DTEK.
Read more of today's top stories here
READ NEXT:
- Pedestrian dies after being hit by car in horror crash near school
- 'Just stab him, we'll take it': Victim left with horror injuries after trio walk up to him and batter him
- 'We complained so many times about mould in our home but they did nothing to help us - now our beautiful Awaab is dead'
- Ugly scenes outside Old Trafford as Manchester United fans turn violent
- Man found dead behind east Manchester car wash is named
