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Who fired the missile that hit Przewodów?
Summary
A retrospective on the 15 November 2022 blast in eastern Poland that killed two people and raised questions of attribution.
Who was responsible for the missile that struck eastern Poland on 15 November 2022? That question dominated the day, after a strike in the village of Przewodów killed two people.
The incident came during Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure, and the village lies near the border with Ukraine. Initially, Ukraine accused Russia of striking Poland. U.S. officials, however, told the Associated Press that preliminary findings suggested the missile had been fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian missile. President of the United States Joe Biden then said the blast was caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile.
Why attribution mattered
It was the first time a foreign missile had hit NATO territory during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. That made the question of who fired it central, since the two accounts pointed in very different directions: a deliberate Russian strike on a NATO member, or a stray air defence round fired in defence against Russian missiles.
The US account was the one that held. In September 2023, Poland's Prosecutor's Office later stated that the explosion was caused by an out-of-control Ukrainian S-300 air defence missile.
