Alleged Russian missile strikes alarm Poland, US

Reports of possible Russian missile strikes against a target in Poland have prompted an emergency meeting of security officials in Poland while the White House said it was looking to corroborate the information.

Poland's prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki convened a meeting of the National Security and Defense Affairs Committee after unverified local media reports claiming that the latest salvo of Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure resulted in a strike on a Polish border town.

The committee will share its findings promptly, the prime minister's office said via Twitter, warning "not to publish unconfirmed information until then."

The Russian defense ministry claimed the reports were a "provocation" and that the Russian missile strikes did not hit any targets near the Polish-Ukrainian border.

The US administration, which has previously threatened reprisals if the Russian invasion of Ukraine spills over into neighboring NATO member states, similarly took a wait and see approach.

The Pentagon said it was aware of the reports and was waiting to corroborate them. "We're working with the Polish government and our allies and partners to gather more information and assess exactly what will happen," the State Department said.

Ukraine's power grid, which has already taken severe hits in the past month, appears to have taken additional damage from the latest attacks, with Kyiv and large urban centers experiencing blackouts. The latest salvo follows the withdrawal last week of Russian troops from the city of Kherson, which Russia claims to have annexed in September.

Deliveries of Russian crude through the Druzhba pipeline's southern section to Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were suspended today because of a Russian military strike on a power transformer in Ukraine that supplies a Druzhba pumping station.

By Haik Gugarats