Zelensky: ‘No doubt’ missile that hit Poland was Russian [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky says he had “no doubt” the missile that hit a Polish village and killed two people was not from Ukraine.
• Zelensky made the remarks despite NATO’s statement that the blast was caused by Ukraine’s air defense system.
• The Poland explosion created fears that a bigger conflict between NATO and Russia could erupt.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that the emerging NATO assessment about the origin of the missile that hit a village in Poland and killed two people is incorrect.

“I have no doubt that it was not our missile or our missile strike,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, President Joe Biden and Polish President Andrzej Duda said they believe a Ukrainian anti-air defense missile landed in Poland during an intense Russian bombardment of Ukraine.

“From the information that we and our allies have, it was an S-300 rocket made in the Soviet Union, an old rocket, and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side,” Duda said. “It is highly probable that it was fired by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.”

Zelensky also asked for Ukrainian investigators to be given access to the blast site so they can be involved in the analysis of debris.

“Based on the credibility of the reports of the military, I believe that it was a Russian missile.” Zelensky declared.

Russia has vehemently denied its missiles were involved in yesterday’s fatal blast.

NATO ally Slovakia is fortifying its air defense systems while Lithuania called on NATO to increase deterrents along its eastern border with Russia.

Since Russia launched the invasion in February, it was the first time a missile has strayed across the border from Ukraine.

Biden held an emergency meeting with other world leaders while NATO also called for a series of emergency meetings over the explosion.

Moscow was furious about reports that Russia intends to create a bigger war, or even World War 3.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, warned the world is heading toward World War III and blamed the strike on the West.

“The incident with the Ukrainian-alleged ‘missile strike’ on a Polish farm proves just one thing: waging a hybrid war against Russia, the West moves closer to the world war,” wrote Medvedev.

The public controversy has sown doubts about motivated reasoning affecting one side or another, as an assessment that blames Moscow would reinforce Ukraine’s long-standing desire for NATO to “close the sky” to Russian aerial assaults.

The United States and NATO allies downplayed the likelihood that Russia launched the missile to avoid a crisis with Moscow.

“Those claims, at the moment, will calm down the situation,” a senior European official said.

Some experts concluded that the images of the reported missile debris in Poland they studied are traceable to Ukrainian missile stockpiles. Ukraine still maintains stocks of former Soviet and Russian-made weapons, including the S-300 air-defense missile system thus, the confusion.

Source: The Sun