Alleged Russian missile strike alarms Poland: Update 2

Updates with additional details.

Warsaw is considering launching formal consultations with other NATO members after summoning the Russian ambassador to protest an alleged missile strike on a Polish town near the border with Ukraine.

The latest salvo of Russian missiles targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure resulted in a strike by a "Russian-made missile" near the Polish border town of Przewodow, killing two Polish citizens, Poland's foreign ministry said late on 15 November.

An emergency meeting of Poland's defense and national security officials earlier in the day decided to place some military units on high alert and, depending on the outcome of the investigation, launch formal consultations with other NATO members, government spokesman Piotr Muller told reporters following the meeting.

Senior officials at NATO, the EU and the US already have held consultations with their counterparts in Poland, with US president Joe Biden taking early morning calls from Bali, Indonesia, where he and other global leaders are attending the G20 summit of major economies.

Officials in Poland, NATO and the US have urged against jumping to conclusions, after warning for months about reprisals if the Russian invasion of Ukraine spills over into neighboring NATO member states. The Polish government's characterization — a "Russian-made missile" — does not necessarily assign explicit blame on Moscow and there is no indication at present that Poland would invoke the self-defense provision of the NATO treaty.

"President Biden offered full US support for and assistance with Poland's investigation," the White House said. "President Biden reaffirmed the US' ironclad commitment to NATO. The two leaders said that they and their teams should remain in close touch to determine appropriate next steps as the investigation proceeds."

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.

NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg expressed condolences "on the loss of life" as a result of the "explosion in Poland." European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she was "alarmed by the reports of an explosion in Poland, following a massive Russian missile strike on Ukrainian cities."

Ukraine's power grid, which has already suffered severe damage 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 and Ruxandra Iordache