US downplays Russian origin of Poland attack: Update 3

Updates with changes throughout

The missile that killed two Polish citizens in a town near the border with Ukraine likely did not originate in Russia, US president Joe Biden said, capping hours of consultations among senior NATO and G7 officials about an incident that could have pitted the western military alliance against Moscow.

NATO members' ambassadors are likely to meet to discuss the incident, but the alliance will wait until Poland completes an investigation to determine any potential response, Biden told reporters in Bali, Indonesia, on 16 November local time after an emergency meeting with the leaders of G7, EU and other European countries gathered there for the G20 summit of major economies.

"We agreed to support Poland's investigation into the explosion in rural Poland near the Ukrainian border," Biden said. Pressed by reporters to elaborate on what happened, Biden said that "there is preliminary information that contests that (the missile came from Russia). I don't want to say that until we completely investigate it, but it's unlikely, given the trajectory, that it was fired from Russia."

Warsaw on 15 November summoned the Russian ambassador to protest an alleged missile strike that killed two residents of the Polish town of Przewodow, near the border with Ukraine. The attack took place during a particularly intense barrage of missile strikes launched by Russia against Ukrainian energy and other civilian infrastructure. Poland's foreign ministry said the attack involved a "Russian-made missile" but did not explicitly blame Moscow.

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 on 15 November because of a Russian military strike on a power transformer in Ukraine that supplies a Druzhba pumping station.

"We also discussed the latest series of Russian missile attacks, which are continuing the brutality and inhumanity that they've demonstrated throughout this war against Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure," Biden said. "At the moment when the world came together at the G20 to urge de-escalation, Russia continues to escalate in Ukraine — while we're meeting."

The western leaders pledged to do "whatever it takes to give (Ukraine) the capacity to defend themselves," Biden said.

By Haik Gugarats and Ruxandra Iordache