U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reportedly called on Ukraine’s President Volodimir Zelenski on Tuesday to watch his manners and accusations of Russian involvement in the explosion in the Polish town of Przewodow, CNN has reported.
Shortly after the news broke, President Zelenski delivered his usual evening speech in which he referred to the explosion in the neighboring country and accused Russia of having launched the missiles that hit Poland, near the Ukrainian border.
The Ukrainian head of state also defined what happened as «a very significant escalation» in the conflict, as it would be the first direct hit on a member country of the Atlantic Alliance since the outbreak of the war, and called for measures to be taken.
Following Zelenski’s words, Sulliván quickly picked up the phone to contact the Ukrainian president and urge him to be careful with the way in which he referred to what had happened, according to sources familiar with the matter told CNN.
The fact is that both Washington and later Warsaw first ruled out directly blaming Russia for what happened and later pointed to the possibility that the missile that fell on Polish territory could have been launched by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the framework of a defensive operation.
In fact, this last version of what could have happened on Tuesday has not pleased Kiev, and Zelenski himself has insisted that Ukraine should also be part of the investigation of the event. Poland has finally agreed to this.
Polish media reported late on Tuesday the death of two people in Przewodow, Lublin province, after the possible impact of two stray rockets. Countries such as Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Ukraine ventured to point the finger at Russia.
Moscow, for its part, in response to calls from several states to defend NATO territory, came out to deny the accusations and pointed out that the missile fragments found in the area do not correspond to the type of weaponry used by its armed forces in the war in Ukraine.
