Poland agrees to allow Ukrainian access to missile blast probe
Krakow, Poland, Nov 17 (EFE).- Poland will allow Ukrainian observers to take part in the investigation launched after a rocket hit a Polish village on the Ukrainian border, according to Polish authorities Thursday.
Polish president Andrzej Duda sees “no obstacles” for Ukraine to access the probe, Jacek Siewiera, head of Poland’s national security bureau, said.
A rocket hit a southeastern Polish village near the country’s border with Ukraine on Tuesday, killing two people.
According to Nato and Polish officials, it was “likely” an air defense missile launched by Ukrainian armed forces at incoming Russian that veered off course.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, however, urged his country’s participation in the investigation on Wednesday, and said: “I think it was a Russian missile – based on the confidence I have in the military reports.”
Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said the war-torn nation was ready to “hand over evidence of the Russian trace,” according to Ukrinform news agency,
“We are expecting information from our partners, based on which a conclusion was made that it’s a Ukrainian air defense missile,” he added.
Jakub Kumoch, Duda’s adviser, told a private Polish broadcaster that there are many indications it was one of the Ukrainian missiles fired to intercept Russian ones.
“Its self-destruct mechanism did not work and caused the tragedy, unfortunately,” Kumoch said.
He stressed that there are classified film materials and that Polish and US experts working on the investigation are capable of spotting where the missile was launched from.
Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki, meanwhile, said more evidence about the missile was being collected with each passing hour.
“It is a Soviet-made rocket, probably from the 1980s, which can hit targets at a distance of even more than 150 km. We do not know exactly where it was launched, so I will not add more. I do not want to speculate,” he said.EFE
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