The United States and other NATO allies have blamed Russia after explosions from missiles killed two persons in Poland near Ukraine border.
9News Nigeria gathered that two people have died in an explosion in a Polish village near the border with Ukraine amid reports that Russian missiles hit the area.
According to the report by the Associated Press, two sources, including a senior US intelligence official, the blast in Przewodow was due to Russian missiles crossing into Poland on Tuesday (local time).
“Firefighters are on the spot, it’s not clear what has happened,” said Lukasz Kucy, the officer on duty at a nearby firefighters post.
Media reports said the strike hit a grain-drying facility.
Polish Radio ZET reported that two missiles hit the village, about 6 kilometres from the border with Ukraine, and killed two people, without giving further details.
Russia’s defence ministry denied reports that Russian missiles had hit Polish territory, describing them as a deliberate provocation.
“No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border were made by Russian means of destruction,” it said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he had no information on the explosion.
The Polish foreign ministry said it had summoned the Russian ambassador over the incident.
While addressing the media, the government spokesperson, Piotr Muller said Poland is increasing military readiness and was verifying if it needed to request consultations under Article 4 of the NATO military alliance treaty.
Article 4 allows NATO members to bring any issue of concern, especially regarding security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council.
Article 4 of NATO chatter states, “The Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”
Mr Muller also said Poland was increasing the readiness of some military units but declined to take any questions including about the cause of the incident.
“It was decided a moment ago to increase the readiness of some combat military units in Poland and to increase the combat readiness of other units of uniformed services in our country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the United States White House said that President Joe Biden has spoken with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda in the wake of the blast.
“President Biden offered full US support for, and assistance with, Poland’s investigation,” the White House said after the pair spoke.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also spoke with Mr Duda about the explosion.
“I offered my condolences for the loss of life,” he said on Twitter.
“NATO is monitoring the situation and allies are closely consulting. [It’s] Important that all facts are established.”
