World leaders meet on missile that hit Poland, killing 2

Published November 16th, 2022 - 09:46 GMT
emergency meeting
An "emergency" meeting to discuss a missile strike on Polish territory near the border with Ukraine, on the side line of the G20 leaders' summit in Nusa Dua, on the Indonesian resort island of Bali on November 16, 2022. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP)

ALBAWABA - U.S. President Joe Biden convened an emergency meeting of world leaders assembling for the G20 summit in Bali, hours after a missile struck NATO-member Poland, killing two people.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said the missiles were "Russian-made." Both Russia and Ukraine have used Russian-made weapons in the nearly nine-month conflict, including Russian-made missiles Kyiv deployed in its air defense system.

An investigation is underway to determine circumstances surrounding the incident, such as who fired the missile, and where it was fired from. The missile landed near the rural Polish village of Przewodow, which is four miles (6.4 kilometers) west of the Ukrainian border around the same time Russia showered Ukrainian cities with its biggest barrage of missile strikes since the start of the conflict.

Preliminary information suggested that it was “unlikely” the missile was fired from within Russia, President Biden told reporters following the emergency meeting with G7 and NATO leaders on the fringes of the G20 summit. He could not provide any conclusive information until the probe was complete.

“We agreed to support Poland’s investigation into the explosion," he said. "I’m going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened."

“Then we’re going to collectively determine our next step as we investigate and proceed. There was total unanimity among the folks at the table,” he added.

Following Biden’s statement, a NATO military official told CNN the missile had been tracked by an alliance aircraft flying above Polish airspace at the time of the blast.

“Intel with the radar tracks [of the missile] was provided to NATO and Poland,” the NATO military official added. The NATO official did not say who launched the missile, or where it was fired from.

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