KEY POINTS

  • Kyiv said it wanted to see information based on which NATO concluded the missile was a stray fired by Ukraine
  • Blaming Russia for the Poland missile incident, Zelensky said: "We need to put the terrorist in its place"
  • Ukraine has blamed Moscow for promoting the "conspiracy theory" about stray air defense missiles

Even as tensions ease over the missile strike in eastern Poland, conspiracy theories surrounding the incident refuse to die down.

While Western allies said the missile explosion was a stray incident caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile, Kyiv claimed it got "evidence" of "Russian trace" in the explosion, and blamed Moscow for promoting the "conspiracy theory" of stray missiles.

Following reports that a missile had hit the Polish village of Przewodów, near the border with Ukraine, killing two people, Kyiv on Wednesday called for a joint investigation into the incident. Ukraine said it wanted to see the information, which was the basis of the conclusion drawn by NATO and Poland that the missile was a stray fired by Ukraine's air defense.

Requesting access to the site of the explosion in Poland, Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine wrote on Twitter the latter was "ready to hand over evidence of the Russian trace," in the missile strike.

Despite NATO allies ruling out a Russian attack, and confirming it was an accidental incident, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba blamed Moscow for promoting the "conspiracy theory" about stray Ukrainian air defense missiles, adding a lesson should have been learned from the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17, which crashed after being hit by a Russian-made Buk missile over eastern Ukraine in July 2014.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had also blamed Russia calling the incident a "very significant escalation," saying the strike offered proof that "terror is not limited by our state borders."

"We need to put the terrorist in its place. The longer Russia feels impunity, the more threats there will be for everyone within the reach of Russian missiles," Zelensky said.

Meanwhile, the Financial Times quoted an unnamed diplomat from a NATO country in Kyiv, who reportedly said: "This is getting ridiculous. The Ukrainians are destroying [our] confidence in them. Nobody is blaming Ukraine and they are openly lying. This is more destructive than the missile."

Responding to Ukraine's request for access to the location, Polish President Andrzej Duda told a news conference the "proceedings are conducted by Polish and American experts and if anyone was to be allowed to take part in these proceedings it would need at least the agreement of both parties."

Amid heightened fears of false flag operations in a war that has been dragging on for nearly nine months, the missile explosion in Poland has added to the several mysteries that have threatened to escalate the Russia-Ukraine war into Europe.

With growing calls for peace negotiations and Kyiv's concerns about Republicans' threat to cut aid, Russia termed the missile incident as a "deliberate provocation" to drag the U.S.-led military alliance into direct conflict with Moscow.

Weighing in on the debate of the U.S. funding and arms for Ukraine, following the missile explosion in Poland, Donald Trump Jr, who blamed "warmongers in Congress & the military industrial complex" for attempting to drag NATO into war with Russia, called for stopping aid to Ukraine.

While, Russia's UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya on Wednesday accused the West of flawed logic in blaming the former for the missile incident in Poland, a report by Russian news agency TASS quoted Hungarian Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Gergely Gulyas, criticizing Ukraine for reacting irresponsibly.

Before pointing out that "only Russia is responsible for the war," Gulyas reportedly said: "The Ukrainians are responsible for the Ukrainian president acting irresponsibly and immediately accusing the Russians of doing it."

According to reports, Zelensky had said: "I have no doubt that it was not our missile," adding that he based his conclusion on reports from Ukraine's military, which he "cannot but trust."

Map locating Przewodow in Poland
AFP