Ukraine wants access to the site of an explosion in eastern Poland which Western officials say was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Wednesday, according to Reuters.
Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, said Ukraine wanted a joint study of Tuesday’s incident with its partners and to see the information that provided the basis for its allies’ conclusions.
Earlier on Wednesday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said the blast, which killed two people, was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile but that Russia was ultimately responsible because it started the war in Ukraine.
“Let me be clear, this is not Ukraine’s fault,” said Stoltenberg.
“An investigation into this incident is ongoing and we need to await its outcome. But we have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack and we have no indication that Russia is preparing offensive military actions against NATO,” he added.
“Our preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks.”
Kyiv is “completely open to a comprehensive study of the situation,” Danilov wrote on the council’s official Facebook page.
Danilov also said Ukraine has evidence of a “Russian trace” in the incident and echoed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in blaming Russia’s “missile terror”. Danilov provided no details of what evidence he was citing.
Meanwhile Poland signalled it would in the end not invoke NATO’s article 4, which provides for consultations among allies in the face of a security threat, since the blast was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile and not by Russia.