Polish president says missile explosion was caused by Ukrainian air defences

Polish Preisdent Andrzej Duda has said that a missile explosion in a Polish village late last night was caused by Ukrainian air defences.

The blast in Poland late last night - which killed two people - appears to be "a result of Ukrainian air defense”.

Earlier on Wednesday, US President Joe Biden told allies a missile that hit a Polish village and killed two people is “unlikely” to have been fired from Russia.

The development comes after Biden spoke with his Polish counterpart and NATO secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg. Poland is a NATO member.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will be giving a press conference shortly, after an emergency meeting of Nato ambassadors to discuss the Poland missile strike.

Many commentators have surmised that the meeting was requested by Poland under Article 4 of the Nato treaty.

Damage caused by a missile that struck a Polish town on the border with Ukraine. Two people were killed.

This says that members will consult together when any of them think their “ territorial integrity, political independence or security” is threatened.

However, a spokesperson for the German foreign ministry has said this wasn’t the case.

Poland’s military was put on high alert but Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki urged his compatriots to remain calm.

The Polish missile strike dominated developments at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, where Western leaders held an “emergency roundtable” on the side lines of the summit.

They urged against jumping to any conclusions about the origins of the strike, while expressing solidarity with Poland.

Investigations as to the provenance of the missile are ongoing with Polish President Andrzej Duda saying there is no “conclusive evidence” as to who launched the missile.

Two people were killed in a small Polish village near the Ukrainian border yesterday after it was hit by a missile, initially believed to have been fired by Russia. At the time of the Polish explosion, Russian missiles were raining down on several Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv.

Russia's defence ministry yesterday evening was prompt to deny it was behind the blast and called it a “deliberate provocation aimed at escalation”.

Meanwhile, the G20 leaders meeting in Bali have released their final declaration, which says that “most members” strongly condemn Russia's war in Ukraine. Russia is a G20 member.