site.btaPolish Ambassador to Bulgaria: Missile Incident Hardly Deliberate Attack

Tuesday night's missile explosion in Poland, which killed two people, was hardly a deliberate attack, Polish Ambassador to Bulgaria Maciej Szymanski said in an interview for bTV on Thursday. He confirmed earlier reports that Polish and US experts are conducting an investigation at the scene of the incident. Ukraine has expressed a desire to join in, but Poland has not decided on the matter yet, he said.

The diplomat speculated that the two missiles which hit Poland probably came from Ukraine in response to Russian attacks. No one would fire an expensive missile at a farm building, he commented. "The sound of Russian missile attacks on facilities in Ukraine is often heard in Poland. Ukraine would not have fired surface-to-air missiles unless there were Russian rockets in Ukraine's airspace. Moscow is indirectly responsible for the incident because it is attacking the Ukrainian side," Szymanski argued.

In his words, there is no evidence that Russia intends to attack Poland. Although Poland has not formally requested an invocation of Article 4 of the NATO Treaty, the allies have already held consultations.

"Poland has always been active in proposing EU sanctions against Russia. Moscow has shown that such sanctions are necessary," the Ambassador said. He described the Polish authorities' reaction to the missile incident as "very restrained and carefully considered". "We said at the very beginning that it was probably a mistake of the Ukrainian air defence forces," the Ambassador said.

Still, Poland remains on high alert. "The air defence systems have been set off, other serious measures have been taken, but this does not worry the Poles and does not mean that Poland is preparing for war," Ambassador Szymanski said.

It transpired during the interview that there are 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees in Poland. At least one million of them have jobs and have successfully integrated in the country's society. "The Poles are definitely not opposed to receiving refugees," the diplomat said.