The National Security Council (BBN) meeting convened by Polish President Andrzej Duda was held at the Presidential Palace in connection with the missile explosion in Przewodów, located near the border with Ukraine. Earlier, the BBN hosted a meeting between the President and Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, ministers and military commanders.

‘There is no indication that this was an intentional attack on Poland,’ President Duda said, adding that Ukraine was defending itself, which was obvious and understandable, including by launching missiles aimed at bringing down Russian missiles. “We were facing a very serious clash for which the Russian side was to blame”, he said.

Later in his speech, the Polish leader reassured all residents, especially in the eastern areas. He informed that the increased movement in the sky, which they are probably observing currently, “strengthens our security and they are our and allied aircraft that patrol the sky and are on heightened alert”.

“We are in direct contact with our NATO allies. We have no indication that this was an attack on Poland”, Andrzej Duda stressed.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, said that Poland had responded in a balanced and coordinated way to the explosion in Przewodów.

‘The coordination, the exchange of information, the balanced response and the signal that we need to establish the facts before we draw final conclusions about the explosion in Poland – all this shows that NATO allies have responded in a reasonable and responsible way’, Stoltenberg said. ‘It should be understood that responding to such situations means being able to find a balance between decisiveness, speed and calmness and avoiding unnecessary escalation’, the Alliance secretary-general added.

Adrian Andrzejewski