When asked about Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks on the matter, Joe Biden told reporters, “That is not the evidence.”
Joe Biden, the vice president of the United States, has refuted Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s claims that a missile that landed in Poland and killed two people was not of Ukrainian origin.
Wednesday, the president of Ukraine stated that he had “no doubt” that the missile was not Ukrainian and requested access to the incident site for his officials.
Mr. Biden has stated that the missile’s trajectory suggests it did not originate in Russia, and when asked on Thursday about Mr. Zelenskyy’s statements on the matter, he told reporters, “That’s not the evidence.”
The missile struck a grain silo on a farm near Przewodow, approximately six kilometers from the Polish-Ukrainian border.
The explosion drew widespread outrage due to the potential that it was a Russian attack on NATO territory, as the Polish foreign ministry identified the missile as “Russian-made.”
Moscow maintains, however, that it did not fire the missile, with the Russian defense ministry stating, “No strikes on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state line were conducted by Russian means of destruction.”
It asserted that pictures of the site revealed the debris to be a Ukrainian S-300 missile.
According to three US sources, preliminary assessments indicate that Ukrainian forces launched the missile toward an incoming Russian missile.
Ukraine has stores of Soviet and Russian-made equipment, notably air-defense missiles, and has seized a large number of additional Russian weapons while repelling the Kremlin’s forces during the nine-month-long fight.
Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization states that an attack on a member country is considered an attack on all allies.
“This is not the fault of Ukraine”
However, Polish President Andrzej Duda has stated that his country is “quite likely” to instead invoke Article 4, which allows a member state to bring up a security matter for discussion.
“According to the information we and our partners possess, it was an outdated Soviet-made S-300 rocket, and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side,” he said.
It is quite likely that it was shot by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense to defend Ukrainian land.
NATO ambassadors have conducted emergency discussions in reaction to the war’s first lethal incursion into Western alliance territory.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also commented on the incident on Tuesday, stating that Russia “bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine” regardless of the conclusion of the investigation into the explosion.
He stated, “This is not Ukraine’s responsibility.”
Other significant events
- Investigators in Ukraine’s southern port city of Kherson discovered 63 bodies with evidence of torture, the country’s interior minister was cited as saying by the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
- According to the Belarusian news agency Nexta, explosions have been recorded in the Crimean town of Dzhankoi, located in the region’s northern region.
- The Czech Republic intends to train up to 4,000 Ukrainian troops in 2023, according to the country’s minister of defense.
- The International Paralympic Committee’s general session in Berlin votes to suspend Russia.
Targeted by Russian missiles are energy and infrastructure
The incident occurred during what Ukraine described as the largest wave of Russian missile attacks on its territory since the invasion began in February.
Tuesday, according to British intelligence, Russia launched up to eighty long-range missiles, primarily on targets in the electrical grid.
According to the UK’s Ministry of Defence, this is possibly the biggest number of attacks Russia has undertaken in a single day since the first week of the invasion.
As Russian forces continue to strike Ukraine’s national infrastructure, Russia’s conventional cruise missile inventories are being depleted, according to the most recent update on the situation on the ground.
According to Interfax Ukraine, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that fresh Russian missile attacks on Thursday had targeted vital infrastructure, including gas production facilities and a missile plant.
Explosions were heard in numerous parts of the country, including the port city of Odesa in the south, the capital city of Kyiv, and the city of Dnipro in the center, which is home to the massive Pivdenmash missile plant.
According to additional reports, the southern port city of Odesa was also hit by missiles.
Oleksiy Chernyshov, the chief executive officer of the state energy company Natogaz, stated that Russia had launched a “major attack” on the infrastructure of the eastern Ukrainian gas plant Ukrgazvydobuvannia.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Oleg Nikolenko said: “Putin desires to deprive millions of people of energy and heating amid frigid conditions. Send additional air and missile defense systems to Ukraine to prevent this disaster. Delays are fatal.”
Black Sea grain contract extension
In the meantime, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the continuation of an international agreement to secure the safe transport of Ukrainian grain, food, and fertilizer exports over the Black Sea.
The July grain export agreement between Turkey and the United Nations, which provided safe passage into and out of Odesa and two other Ukrainian ports, Chornomorsk and Yuzhne, was slated to expire on Saturday.
It followed a blockade of Ukrainian ports by Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which halted the flow of grain and other agricultural products around the world and drove up worldwide prices.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers, and a global food crisis was averted by a four-month-old scheme.
Mr. Zelenskyy had previously stated that he anticipated the renewal for a minimum of 120 days, calling it a “crucial decision in the worldwide fight against the food crisis.”
