Mystery of the missile that stormed Poland: KH-101 or S-300 AD?

A “Russian-made” rocket landed in japanese Poland close to Ukraine and killed two residents in explosions on early Wednesday.

Polish Police investigating the positioning the place missile strike killed 2 in Przewodow. (AFP picture)

By Bidisha Saha, Dipti Yadav: Poland introduced within the early hours of Wednesday {that a} “Russian-made” missile fell within the japanese a part of the nation inside six kilometers of the worldwide border of Ukraine close to the border of the village of Przewodow, killing two individuals within the “tragic incident” as per the NATO assertion.

India Today has verified the visible indicators seen within the footage by open-source Twitter handles and narrowed down the geolocation of the explosion to Przewodow in Hrubieszow County of Poland.

The pictures of the missile posted on some social media handles present that the fragments of the missile both belong to KH-101 (cruise missile from Russia) or S-300 AD (soviet anti-air missile which may both be from Russia or Ukraine). However, it’s price noting that protection anti-aircraft missiles have a relatively shorter vary, making it unlikely that the weapon flew all the best way from Russia.

As famous by the navy analysts for New York Times, each the Russian and Ukrainian military forces may very well be utilizing “Soviet-era Russian-made” missiles.

The S-300 Air Defense, a Soviet Union weapon retained by each Russia and Ukraine, has a variety of 150 kilometers. But it’s extremely unlikely that this weapon may very well be fired by Russia as the space from the explosion spot to Russian management websites, at present arrange in Belarus, stretches to no less than 1187 kilometers (approx). Thus, if the instructed missile is S-300 AD, then it was probably fired from Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Air Forces reported that “around 90 rockets were fired” by Russia over the territory of Ukraine and no less than 70 of them had been intercepted by their air protection system.

Some preliminary claims from OSINT handles additionally instructed a similarity with the Russian missile KH-101, which is a long-range standoff weapon with a variety of 3000 kilometers. Around 90 of those stealthy cruise missiles had been utilized by Russia in direction of Lviv metropolis in Ukraine on Tuesday. If the instructed missile is recognized to be KH-101, then each Przewodow and Lviv fall below its radar.

But as per the most recent report “Three U.S. officials said preliminary assessments suggested the missile was fired by Ukrainian forces at an incoming Russian one amid the crushing salvo against Ukraine’s electrical infrastructure Tuesday,” acknowledged the Associated Press within the early hours of Wednesday.

Biden’s Solidarity

The President of the United States, Joe Biden, who’s at present attending the G20 summit in Indonesia, was the primary to mollify the argument that the missile was fired from Russia owing to its trajectory. Based on the preliminary info accessible on the projectile, he mentioned “it’s unlikely, in the mind of the trajectory, that it was fired from Russia” on the press briefing. When requested about invoking Article 4 or 5 of the NATO constitution, the President mentioned that the “consensus” is to have a gathering of NATO ambassadors to resolve on additional actions.

This got here after he spoke with Andrzej Duda, the President of Poland, and supplied “full support” for Poland’s investigation of the explosion.

NATO’s stance

Jens Stoltenburg, NATO’s secretary General additionally spoke to Andrzej Duda and supplied assist by saying that the alliance is “ monitoring the situation and the Allies are closely consulting”. Stoltenburg can even chair an emergency assembly with the ambassadors of NATO on Wednesday to debate “this tragic incident”, as per the assertion of the spokesperson of NATO, Oana Lungescu.

Articles 4 & 5 of the NATO Charter

Under Article 4, any member state can carry any problem of concern, particularly concerning “territorial integrity, political independence or security”, for dialogue at North Atlantic Council.
Article 5 of the Collective Defence of NATO constitution commits its members to mutual protection, stating that “an attack on one is an attack on all.” That is, if a NATO ally is the sufferer of an armed assault, every different member of the alliance will think about this as an assault towards all its allies.
Poland’s Retort

Polish Prime minister Mateusz Morawieckik referred to as for a “matter of urgency” convention with the nation’s nationwide safety and protection ministers as per a tweet by the federal government spokesperson, Piotr Mueller.

In reference to the incident Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zbigniew Rau, summoned the ambassador of the Russian Federation to demand “immediate” and “detailed” explanations.

President Andrzej Duda acknowledged “We have no conclusive evidence at this time as to who launched this missile. Investigations are underway. It was most likely a Russian-made rocket.” He additionally added that the territorial safety of Poland has been “strengthened” and there are not any indications of any such additional occasions.

Russia Denies Allegations by Poland

In a Telegram put up, the Ministry of Defense of Russia denied any “strikes were made against targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border by Russian means of destruction” and in addition acknowledged that the photographs of the fragments of the weapon being circulated within the media “have nothing to do with” Russia. They claimed that the allegation from Poland is a means of “deliberate provocation in order to escalate the situation”.

Ukrainian Version

Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy additionally had a name with Andrzej Duda on the explosion. He accused “terrorist” Russia of staging a “serious provocation” on NATO territory and dealing with Poland for the aim of “clarifying all the facts”. He acknowledged it as a “very significant escalation” that goes past “our national borders” to focus on missiles assault at NATO territory.

What Happened in Lyiv City?

Russian forces focused electrical infrastructure with a widespread missile assault in Lyiv metropolis of Ukraine which is round 72 kilometers south of Przewodow on Tuesday. The Ukrainian Air Forces reported that “around 90 rockets were fired” and no less than 70 of them had been intercepted by the air protection system.

However, Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine claimed in a Twitter put up that the explosion in Poland was not attributable to a Ukrainian air protection missile.

The proximity of the explosion to the Ukrainian border raises the chance that it was both an erring missile or a results of a missile shot down by Ukraine’s air protection programs.

Published On:

Nov 16, 2022