Just hours after NATO leaders announced that a “preliminary” investigation into a fatal attack in Poland on Tuesday was “likely” caused by Ukrainian air defenses and not by a planned attack through Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is stepping up his efforts and insisting that Ukraine is not responsible.
“I have no doubt that it wasn’t our missile or our missile attack. We will have to participate in the investigation,” Zelensky said, according to NEXTA.
Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, shared a tweet claiming that accusations that Ukrainian air defense was the coup in Poland were false and a “conspiracy theory” on Tuesday. The tweet was not deleted on Wednesday, even though NATO said Ukraine was “probably” the incident.
“Russia is now peddling a conspiracy theory that it is a Ukrainian air defense missile that stumbled upon the Polish theory. Which is true,” Kuleba said.
The claims that Ukraine was not involved in the incident, which left two other people dead, come amid a wave of hands pointing fingers at the gunpoint. on Tuesday, raising questions about whether the attack led to an accidental or intentional attack in neighboring Poland.
Minutes after the incident in Poland, Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials temporarily denied any involvement and alleged that Russia was responsible. Zelensky invoked the language of NATO’s collective defense and embraced the concept that collective action must be taken.
“This is a Russian missile attack on collective security. This is a very vital escalation. We will have to act,” Zelensky said.
Russia said the accusations were aimed at aggravating the situation. Speculation has also circulated that it is conceivable that Ukrainian air defenses running to intercept Russian missile attacks fell in Poland, the “likely” situation NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg referred to in his announcement earlier Wednesday. .
The incident, and being flagged based on incomplete data on what happened, threatened to be the maximum turning point to date in Russia’s nine-month invasion of Ukraine. This raised questions about whether a collective reaction under NATO’s Article V could be triggered. if the incident is decided as an attack on Poland, a NATO member, it may particularly expand Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Investigations are ongoing into the reasons for the incident, to Stoltenberg.
In obvious contradiction to Zelensky’s claim, the White House said Wednesday that Biden’s management had no data to contradict the suggestion that “most likely” was a Ukrainian air defense missile that landed in Poland.
“We have not noticed anything that contradicts President Doubt’s initial assessment that this maximum explosion is likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland,” White House National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said Wednesday. “We have full confidence in the Polish government’s investigation into the explosion near its border with Ukraine, and we congratulate it for the pro- and planned way it was carried out. We will not get ahead of his paintings and remain in close contact with our Polish counterparts, because we are still gathering information.
The threat of a collective reaction and imaginable retaliatory measures appeared to be at stake on Tuesday, when Poland’s prime minister convened an emergency security assembly, Poland raised the readiness of its military and President Joe Biden and other world leaders gathered in an unscheduled emergency assembly on Tuesday. on the sidelines of the G20 summit on Tuesday. Zelensky’s repeated claim that Ukraine was not guilty may cast a shadow of doubt over the relatively cool heads that appear to have emerged after NATO’s explanation that the incident was “probably” caused by Ukrainian air defenses.
So far, however, other Western leaders seem to stick to NATO’s narrative. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Wednesday that Ukrainian rockets had hit Poland, appearing to contradict Zelensky’s claim.
“Yesterday, Russia launched a major missile attack. The Ukrainians, to protect themselves, introduced rockets and one of them fell on the territory of the Republic of Poland,” Morawiecki said, according to a translation by Poland’s Law and Justice Party.
And Zelensky claimed that evidence may still emerge indicating the defenses of the Ukrainian army. “I need us to be fair and if it’s the use of our air defense, then I need this proof,” Zelensky said, according to NEXTA.
If Ukrainian air defenses really led to the incident in Poland, it is vital that the explanation for why Ukraine used air defenses is due to Russian missile attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, said Ivo Daalder, a former U. S. ambassador. The U. S. government in the U. S. to NATO told The Daily Beast on Wednesday.
“An air defense missile does not errant land over Poland unless Russian offensive missiles attack Ukraine, so there is no doubt that Russia bears responsibility,” Daalder said. “If it weren’t for a war through Russia, we wouldn’t be in this all-out conversation. “
NATO has a tendency to agree that Russia is to blame at the center of this incident. Although the “preliminary” investigation so far concerns Ukraine, “Russia bears the ultimate responsibility,” Stoltenberg said. “It’s not Ukraine’s fault. “
Poland’s prime minister reiterated Wednesday that Russia deserves to take ultimate responsibility, even if Ukrainian air defenses were indeed the incident.
“Although we know the precise reasons for the Przewodów tragedy, we know the main cause: Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” he said.