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What the Przewodów blast and blackouts revealed
Summary
A look back at 19 November 2022, with Ukraine's grid battered by missiles and a stray air defence missile having killed two in Poland days earlier.
How far did Russia's missile campaign reach by 19 November 2022? Two reports from the preceding days show both its domestic toll and its regional spillover.
On 18 November 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian missile strikes had left at least 10 million Ukrainians without electricity. The death toll from the strikes of the previous day had risen to seven, with many more people injured. The attacks were part of the October–November 2022 wave of nationwide missile strikes on Ukraine.
The Polish incident
Three days earlier, on 15 November 2022, a missile strike killed two people in the village of Przewodów in eastern Poland. U.S. President Joe Biden said the blast was caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile. U.S. officials had earlier told the Associated Press that preliminary findings suggested Ukrainian forces fired the missile at an incoming Russian missile.
The episode was the first time a foreign missile had hit NATO territory during the invasion. Ukraine initially accused Russia of striking Poland, while Washington's early assessment pointed to a Ukrainian interceptor.
Why it mattered
The two stories were linked by the same barrage of Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure. Those strikes darkened homes across Ukraine, and Ukrainian air defences working against them were at the centre of the Polish incident.
The Polish question was settled only later. In September 2023, Poland's Prosecutor's Office stated that the explosion was caused by an out-of-control Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile, confirming the U.S. view.
