Ukraine refuses to accept it was behind Poland missile strike, despite NATO forgiveness

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said helium had "no doubt" that his state was not to blasted for a rocket onslaught that deed a Polish village, sidesplitting 2 people, contempt NATO's archetypal appraisal that the blast took spot arsenic Ukraine was trying to support itself against Russia.

Zelenskyy said connected Ukrainian TV Wednesday that his apical subject commanders had assured him that "it was not our rocket and not our rocket strike" that was the origin of Tuesday's incident, which provoked an planetary furor and fears that a wider struggle betwixt NATO and Russia could erupt.

"I person nary uncertainty successful [Tuesday's] study to maine personally — from the Commander of the Air Force to Commander-in-Chief [Valery] Zaluzhny — that it was not our rocket and not our rocket strike," Zelenskyy said.

He reiterated calls from Kyiv to supply it with entree to the tract of the explosion, adjacent the colony of Przewodow successful southeastern Poland and conscionable 4 miles from the Ukrainian border, and for Ukraine to beryllium portion of a associated probe being led by Poland and the U.S.

"I judge that we person the close to this. Is it imaginable not to denote the last conclusions until the probe is completed? I deliberation it is fair. If idiosyncratic says that this is our rocket, should we beryllium successful a associated investigative group? I deliberation we should, it is lone fair."

Suspicions arsenic to who was down the onslaught fell connected Russia, peculiarly fixed a immense barrage of rocket strikes that its forces had inflicted connected cities crossed Ukraine during Tuesday. Poland and its different NATO allies, peculiarly those successful the Baltics and Eastern Europe, initially appeared to presume that Russia was down the attack, though it denied work and called the incidental a "deliberate provocation."

As a flurry of high-level diplomatic meetings took spot connected Wednesday, with NATO itself holding an exigency meeting, much details emerged astir the incidental with Western officials suggesting that aboriginal investigations pointed to it being a Ukrainian aerial defence strategy being responsible.

Nonetheless, NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed that, ultimately, Russia was to blasted for the incidental owed to its ongoing onslaught successful Ukraine.

Speaking to the press, Stoltenberg said the subject alliance's "preliminary investigation suggests that the incidental was apt caused by a Ukrainian aerial defence rocket fired to support Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise rocket attacks."

"But fto maine beryllium clear, this is not Ukraine's fault. Russia bears eventual work arsenic it continues its amerciable warfare against Ukraine," helium said.

Stoltenberg noted that the rocket incidental took spot "as Russia launched a monolithic question of rocket attacks crossed Ukraine" and that "there was nary denotation this was the effect of a deliberate attack," nor immoderate denotation it was a effect of "offensive subject actions against NATO."

Despite NATO exonerating Ukraine — and adjacent the injured enactment Poland accepting the rocket onslaught was an "isolated incident" and reiterating its enactment for Ukraine — Kyiv was speedy to support itself and rebuff the archetypal findings of the investigation.

Oleksiy Danilov, caput of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, tweeted that Kyiv wanted to spot the grounds held by its allies that suggested it was involved.

Danilov said connected Twitter that Ukraine was "ready to manus implicit the grounds of the Russian way that we have" but Kyiv was inactive awaiting "information from our partners, connected the ground of which a decision was made that it is simply a Ukrainian aerial defence missile."

When asked Wednesday if Ukraine could instrumentality portion successful the associated investigation, Poland's President Andrzej Duda told reporters that "the proceedings are conducted by Polish and American experts and if anyone was to beryllium allowed to instrumentality portion successful these proceedings some parties would person to agree."