President Joe Biden said Wednesday it was “unlikely” that a missile that killed two in NATO-ally Poland was fired from Russia, but he pledged support for Poland's investigation into what it had called a “Russian-made” missile.
Biden spoke after he convened an “emergency” meeting of the Group of Seven and NATO leaders in Indonesia Wednesday morning for consultations on the explosion that killed two people in the eastern part of Poland near the Ukraine border.
“There is preliminary information that contests that," Biden told reporters when asked if the missile had been fired from Russia.
“It is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia, but we'll see.” Three U.S. officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile amid a crushing salvo against Ukraine's electrical infrastructure Tuesday.
Ukraine still maintains stocks of former Soviet and Russian-made weaponry, including the S-300 air-defence missile system.
A statement from the Polish Foreign Ministry identified the missile as being made in Russia. But Poland's president, Duda, was more cautious about its origin, saying that officials did not know for sure who fired it or where it was made.
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He said it was “most probably” Russian-made, but that is being still verified. If confirmed, it would be the first time since the invasion of Ukraine that a Russian weapon came down on a NATO country.