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Polish gov’t holds urgent meeting after blast reportedly kills two near Ukraine border

15.11.2022 21:30
Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Tuesday called an emergency meeting of security officials after two people were reportedly killed in an explosion in the eastern village of Przewodów near the border with Ukraine.
Mateusz Morawiecki.
Mateusz Morawiecki.PAP/Tytus Żmijewski

Morawiecki’s decision to hold the meeting was announced in the evening by government spokesman Piotr Müller, Polish state news agency PAP reported. 

Müller told reporters that the government’s Committee for National Security and Defence was gathering to discuss “the crisis situation,” the Reuters news agency reported.

He provided no further details but promised to brief the media after the meeting.

The explosion in Przewodów, seven kilometres from the Ukrainian border, killed two people on Tuesday afternoon after a projectile hit an area where grain was drying, Poland’s Rzeczpospolita newspaper reported on its website. 

The Associated Press news agency cited a senior US intelligence official as saying that the blast was due to Russian missiles crossing into Poland.

However, the Pentagon said on Tuesday it could not confirm reports that Russian missiles had crossed into Poland, according to the Reuters news agency. 

"Firefighters are on the spot, it's not clear what has happened," Łukasz Kucy, officer on duty at a nearby firefighters' post, was quoted by Reuters as saying. 

Polish private broadcaster Radio ZET reported earlier that the blast in Przewodów happened when two stray missiles hit the village on Tuesday, killing two people, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, Latvia’s Deputy Prime Minister Artis Pabriks took to Twitter to send his condolences to Poland.

He said: "Criminal Russian regime fired missiles which target not only Ukrainian civilians but also landed on NATO territory in Poland. Latvia fully stands with Polish friends and condemns this crime." 

The incident in Poland's Przewodów came as a wave of Russian missiles struck Ukraine’s power grid on Tuesday, according to officials. 

Some of the missiles crossed into Moldova, cutting electricity to much of the country, according to the AP.

If some of the missiles did indeed also cross into Poland and killed two people, it would mark the first time in the Ukraine war that Russian weapons had come down on a NATO country, the AP reported. 

Tuesday is day 265 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

(pm/gs)

Source: PAP, Reuters, rp.pl, apnews.com, polskieradio24.pl, dorzeczy.pl