Russian missiles kill two people in Poland – reports
Russian missiles are feared to have crossed into NATO member Poland, killing two people on Tuesday night, after reports from a senior US intelligence official.
Missiles reportedly hit a farm in Przewodów, Lublin, a village near the border with Ukraine, according to Polish media.
It was also reported that the missile was “most likely the remains of a missile shot down by the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” by a reporter for Poland’s ZET Radio.
Poland’s prime minister has called an urgent meeting of the government’s national security committee, a government spokesperson said on Twitter.
The meeting was to be held at 8pm UK time, according to Poland’s state news agency PAP.
It was unclear what had exactly happened as of Tuesday evening, with the Polish government yet to confirm any details.
An anonymous source in the Polish prime minister’s office described the situation as “informational chaos” to the BBC on Tuesday evening.
“I have no certainty and I cannot confirm anything,” they said.
One image on social media revealed a crater and an overturned trailer, which was reportedly filled with grain, while another showed what appeared to be a missile fragment.
The White House could also not confirm the reports and said it was working with Poland to accrue more information on the situation, Reuters news agency reported.
The UK Foreign Office was “investigating these reports and liaising closely with allies,” a spokesperson for the department said.
The Russian defence ministry refuted the idea that its missiles crossed into Poland and said images of “wreckage” had “nothing to do with Russian weapons.”
The ministry said reports were a “deliberate provocation” and no strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by its rockets.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called the situation a “very significant escalation” and said it was a “missile attack on collective security.”
Estonia’s foreign ministry described the news from Poland as “most alarming”. It added that it was prepared to defend “every inch of NATO territory”.
It comes as Ukraine was the subject of a renewed wave of missile attacks from Russia with at least 100 hitting the capital Kyiv on Tuesday.
The Kremlin targeted Kyiv, Lviv and Rivne in the west of the country, as well as others in the east and south, leaving seven million homes without power.
More to follow…