Missile that killed two on Polish farm 'likely launched in defence' of Ukraine, president suggests

Poland has said there is “absolutely no indication” that a missile that came down on farmland near its border with Ukraine, killing two people, was a intentional attack and that Ukraine is likely to have launched the projectile.

Kyiv’s forces were fending off a huge Russian air assault that savaged its power grid on Tuesday when the incident happened.

“Ukraine’s defence was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory,” said Polish President Andrzej Duda.

“There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg, at a meeting of the military alliance in Brussels, agreed with the assessment, saying: “An investigation into this incident is ongoing and we need to await its outcome. But we have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack.”

The preliminary findings came after US President Joe Biden and other western backers of Ukraine had thrown their weight behind the investigation, amid repeated assertions from Russia that it did not fire the missile.

Biden said it was “unlikely” that Russia fired the missile but added: “I’m going to make sure we find out exactly what happened.”

Three US officials said preliminary assessments suggested it was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one.

Ukraine maintains stocks of Soviet and Russian-made weaponry, including air-defence missiles, and has also seized many more Russian weapons while beating back the Kremlin’s forces.

Ukrainian air defences worked furiously against the Russian assault on power generation and transmission facilities, including in Ukraine’s western region that borders Poland. Ukraine’s military said 77 of the more than 90 missiles fired were brought down, along with 11 drones.