UPDATE - Poland, NATO Mull Letting Ukraine Contribute To Missile Blast Probe - Senior Diplomat

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th November, 2022) Poland and NATO will decide whether Ukraine should be part of the ongoing investigation into a missile blast that killed two in eastern Poland, Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk said Thursday.

"It is up to our government and the NATO command because we must act as one," Mularczyk told public broadcaster Polskie Radio.

At the same time, Polish presidential adviser Jakub Kumoch said that Poland and the bloc were likely to let Ukrainian investigators participate in the probe.

"Ukrainians have requested access to the investigation site. If both parties (Poland and the United States) agree and, as far as I know, the US will have no objections, they will receive such an access in near future," Kumoch told Polish broadcaster TVN.

The official also noted that Poland believed that the Ukrainian missile accidentally hit Poland and no one was going to accuse Ukraine of deliberately bombing the Polish territory.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that the alliance believed Ukraine fired off the missile on Tuesday night to fend off a Russian strike. It crashed in Polish farmlands, killing two men and flattening a grain dryer.

Stoltenberg said the strike did not seem to be intentional after concerns were raised that it could trigger NATO's collective defense clause.

Ukraine blamed Russia for the hit after Polish media reported a suspected missile landing, but China and several Western leaders called for caution. US President Joe Biden said it was unlikely that the missile came from Russia, which denied targeting the Polish-Ukrainian border.