NATO: Poland blast likely stray Ukrainian missile

STORY: The missile that killed two people in Poland was probably a stray fired by Ukraine's air defenses and not a Russian strike, Poland's government and NATO have said, easing global fears that the war in Ukraine could spill across the border.

The strike on Tuesday (November 15) hit a Polish grain facility near Ukraine.

NATO said in the end, Moscow was still to blame for starting the war in the first place and launching the attack that triggered Ukraine's defenses.

Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday (November 16) an investigation was ongoing:

"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. Our preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missile attacks."

NATO ambassadors were holding emergency talks to respond to the blast, which was the war's first deadly spillover onto the territory of a NATO member.

Poland signalled it might not activate Article 4 of NATO's treaty, which calls for consultations in the face of a security threat.

Meanwhile, Ukraine has asked for access to the site.

Oleksiy Danilov, a senior defense official said Kyiv wanted to conduct a joint study and to see the information that provided the basis for its allies' conclusions.

Writing on the official Facebook page of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on Wednesday, Danilov said Ukraine has evidence of a "Russian trace" in the incident.

He echoed an earlier tweet by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy that blamed Russia's "missile terror." Danilov provided no further details.

Earlier, U.S. President Joe Biden said the missile was unlikely to have been fired from Russia.

The Kremlin said some countries had made "baseless statements" about the incident, but Washington had been comparatively restrained.

The Russian Defense Ministry said none of its missiles had struck closer than 20 miles from the Polish border, and photos of the wreckage showed parts of a Ukrainian Soviet-built S-300 air defense missile.

Moscow launched Tuesday's wave of missile attacks just days after abandoning the southern city of Kherson, the only regional capital it had captured since the invasion.

Kyiv says it shot down most of the incoming Russian bombardment with its own air defense.