President Beden calls emergency meeting over situation in Poland

The meeting was called by President Joe Biden, the White House said, following an explosion in the village of Przewoodow in eastern Poland, near the Ukrainian border.

The leaders of the United States, Germany, Canada, Holland, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, and Great Britain attended.

President Joe Biden has offered Poland support and full US assistance over investigations into the explosion near the Ukrainian border that claimed the lives of two individuals.

President Biden spoke with Polish counterpart Andreze Duda and expressed deep condolences about the loss of lives Tuesday evening, the White House announced through a statement.

President Duda briefed Mr. Biden about his country's investigation into the explosion in the eastern part of the country, near the border with Ukraine.

President Beden reaffirmed the United States' iron commitment to NATO. The two leaders agreed that they and their teams will stay in close contact to determine the right steps as the investigations continue, the White House announcement concludes.

Polish President Andrze Duda said during a press conference that it was known Russia struck Ukraine with rockets during Tuesday. But, he said, at the moment there is no evidence of who launched the missile. I have full confidence that the investigation will clarify this, he said. The missile was probably Russian production, but everything is being investigated. President Duda said that on Wednesday it will most likely activate NATO's Article 4 during a coalition meeting.

According to Article 4 of the treaty, member states can bring about issues of concern, primarily related to the security of a coalition member country. Since creation NATO in 1949, Article 4 has been activated several times, for example by Turkey.

At a press conference, Prime Minister Matthews Morawick said Poland has decided to boost combat readiness, especially when it comes to preserving Poland's airspace in co-operation with allied countries. The prime minister announced the decision to call for an explanation Russian Federation ambassador to Warsaw.

Mr. Morawick said Poland is co-operating with international experts to identify the causes of what happened in the village near the border with Ukraine.

Two people died from an explosion in a Polish village near the Ukrainian border on Tuesday, firefighters said. The specialised Polish units in co-operation with NATO allies are investigating over unconfirmed reports that the blast was caused by Russian missiles that have deviated from targets.

The blast occurred Tuesday as Russia rocketed numerous cities across Ukraine. Kiev said this was the hardest wave of shocks since the beginning of aggression. Some of the missiles hit the town of Lviv, less than 50 miles [80 km] from the Poland border.

An official NATO said the alliance was reviewing the reports and consulting closely with Poland.

The Associated Press news agency quoted a senior US intelligence official as saying that, the explosion in the eastern Polish village of Przewow was caused by Russian missiles that had fallen in Poland.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon and the State Department said they could not confirm that Russian missiles had fallen on Polish territory.

“We are aware of press reports claiming that two Russian missiles have hit an area within Poland near the Ukrainian border. At the moment, we have no information and we are looking at the situation further”, said Pentagon spokesman General Patrick Ryder.

The Russian Defence Ministry denied reports that Russian missiles had fallen in Poland, naming them “a deliberate provocation aimed at escalating the” situation.

Tuesday evening, Polish Prime Minister Matthews Morawiecki called an emergency meeting of the government's committee for national security and defence issues, government spokesman Piotr Mueller said on the Twitter network.

Polish Radio ZET reported that two <x0qerre” missiles hit the village of Przewow, killing two people but without giving further details. The village is located 6km from the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said without offering evidence that Russian missiles had hit Poland.

Senior officials from Germany, Norway, Lithuania and Estonia, NATO member states, said they were trying to gather more information in co-operation with Poland and other allies.

“This is a very serious incident, but many things remain unclear”, Norwegian Foreign Minister Annikn Huitfeldt said.