Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he had “no doubt” his country was not to blame for a missile attack that hit a Polish village and killed two people, despite NATO’s initial assessment that the blast took place as Ukraine was trying to protect itself against Russia.
Zelenskyy told Ukrainian television on Wednesday that his most sensible military commanders had confided in him that “it was not our missile or missile attack” that Tuesday’s incident, which sparked foreign fury and raised fears of a wider standoff between NATO and Russia. could explode.
“I have no doubt in the [Tuesday] report addressed to me personally, from the commander of the air force to the commander-in-chief [Valeriy] Zaluzhny, that it is not our missile or missile attack,” Zelenskyy said.
He reiterated Kyiv’s calls for it to go to the site of the explosion, near the village of Przewodow in southeastern Poland and just four miles from the Ukrainian border, and for Ukraine to be part of a joint investigation across Poland and the United States.
Is it possible not to announce the final findings until the investigation is completed?I think that’s fair. If someone says it’s our rocket, they deserve us to be part of a joint investigation. “group?” I think we deserve it, it’s fair. “
Suspicions about who the attacker was fell on Russia, especially because of the massive barrage of missile movements its forces inflicted on cities across Ukraine on Tuesday. Poland and its other NATO allies, namely those in the Baltic and Eastern Europe, first. He gave the impression of assuming Russia was the attacker, though he denied his duty and called the incident a “deliberate provocation. “
As a series of high-level diplomatic meetings took place on Wednesday, with NATO itself holding an emergency meeting, more important points emerged around the incident, with Western officials suggesting that initial investigations indicated it was a Ukrainian air defense system to blame.
However, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Russia was ultimately to blame for the incident because of its ongoing attack on Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters, Stoltenberg said that “the initial investigation of the army alliance suggests that the incident was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile fired to protect Ukrainian territory from Russian cruise missile attacks. “
“But let’s be clear, it’s not Ukraine’s fault Russia has the final duty as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” he said.
Stoltenberg noted that the missile incident took place “while Russia introduced a large wave of rocket attacks into Ukraine” and that “there is no indication that this is the result of a planned attack,” nor any indication that it is the result of “opposing military offensive movements. “to NATO. “
Although NATO exonerated Ukraine, and even aggravated Poland, accepting that the missile attack was an “isolated incident” and reiterating that it was for Ukraine, Kyiv was quick to protect itself and rejected the first conclusions of the investigation.
Oleksiy Danilov, head of Ukraine’s National Defense and Security Council, tweeted that Kyiv wanted to see evidence in the possession of its allies that suggested he was involved.
Danilov said on Twitter that Ukraine “is ready to hand over the evidence of the Russian lead we have” but that Kyiv is still waiting for “data from our partners, based on which it was concluded that this is a Ukrainian air defense missile. “
Asked Wednesday whether Ukraine could participate in the joint investigation, Polish President Andrzej Duda told reporters that “the procedures are carried out through Polish and American experts and if anyone were allowed to participate in those procedures, either side would agree. “
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