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**Hugh** · 19-11-2022, 13:03

Quote:

[/b] Ukraine says missile parts that landed in Poland may have been Ukrainian[b]

KYIV, Ukraine — So many missiles were fired by Russia and Ukraine during the Russian attack on Ukrainian infrastructure Tuesday that the missile fragments that struck Poland could have been of either Russian or Ukrainian origin, Ukraine air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said.

In an interview Friday, he described an intense battle during which at least 50 missiles were flying through the air within a matter of minutes near the Polish border in western Ukraine, with at least 20 fired by Russia and 30 fired by Ukrainian air defenses as Russia launched its biggest attack yet on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. They were among a total of 96 missiles fired by Russia that day, 77 of which were shot down, he said.

“Anything could be the result of this air defense battle,” he said, acknowledging that at least some of the missile parts could have been Ukrainian.

His comments appeared to signal a further softening of Ukraine’s insistence that the missile parts that killed two Polish grain workers were not of Ukrainian origin, despite initial findings by investigators that they belonged to Ukrainian S-300 antiaircraft missiles. President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this week that he had “no doubt” the missiles were Russian but later said he couldn’t be “100 percent” sure the missiles weren’t Ukrainian.

Ukraine shot down 15 Russian missiles in the vicinity of the border region, but at least five more struck targets near the Polish border, meaning that Russia launched at least 20 missiles into the area, Ignat said. Ukraine’s air defenses typically fire at least two antiaircraft missiles at incoming ones, “so we can assume at least 30 missiles were launched from our side,” he said.

Ukrainian experts have now joined the Polish and American investigators who are looking into the causes of the explosion that killed two workers at a grain-drying facility in the Polish village of Przewodow, about four miles from the Ukrainian border, according to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba. He thanked Poland on Twitter for granting access to the Ukrainian investigators.

Whether the missile parts that struck Poland were Ukrainian or Russian is irrelevant, Ignat said, because Russia bears ultimate responsibility for attacking Ukraine.