Ukraine war: Stray Russian missiles reported to have hit NATO member Poland
Warsaw, Poland - The Polish government has convened an emergency meeting of the National Security Council as alarming reports emerged on Tuesday of two stray Russian missiles that landed in a Polish village near the border with Ukraine.
Official information about what prompted the meeting by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was not initially given.
However, reports suggested a connection with the barrage of Russian rocket fire that hit cities and energy infrastructure across neighboring Ukraine on Tuesday, leaving parts of the country in the dark.
Local media, including private Polish radio station Zet, reported that two rockets hit a Polish village, possibly killing two people were killed.
If confirmed, it would be the first such incident in Russia's nearly nine-month war in Ukraine and mark a dramatic escalation in Moscow's confrontation with the West, given that Poland is a member of NATO.
The Associated Press cited a "senior US intelligence official" who confirmed the story, though Polish authorities have not yet responded.
Russia launches first large-scale assault since Kherson withdrawal
Russia began Tuesday by launching a wave of missiles at the Kyiv region on Tuesday, damaging the power grid and causing massive power cuts.
Attacks were also reported from the Odessa, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Khmelnytskyi, Kharkiv, Lviv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions, prompting an air raid alert to be issued across the country.
Parts of the Republic of Moldova were also reportedly affected, making this the first large-scale attacks on Ukraine since Russian withdrew from Kherson last week.
National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan condemned the attacks, saying: "It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure."
Cover photo: REUTERS