► Volodymyr Zelensky maintains that the missile was “Russian”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed on Wednesday November 16 that the missile that killed two people in a Polish village near the border with Ukraine the day before was Russian. “I have no doubt that this missile was not ours”Volodymyr Zelensky told TV. “I believe it was a Russian missile”he added while NATO officials estimated that it was probably a missile from the Ukrainian air defense system.
“Ukraine requests immediate access to the strike site for defense and border guard representatives,” also claimed on Twitter the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiï Danilov, who said he wished “a joint review of the incident”.
► No indication of a “deliberate attack” against Poland, according to the head of NATO
NATO does not have “no indication” making it possible to attribute the deadly explosion in Poland to “a deliberate attack” against this country, said Wednesday the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.
Missile launch in Poland: Warsaw’s allies call for caution and demand an investigation
“Our preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense system missile fired to defend Ukrainian territory against Russian cruise missiles,” declared the Secretary General of NATO during a press conference. “An investigation into this incident is ongoing and we must await its results,” stressed Jens Stoltenberg, after a meeting of NATO ambassadors at the organization’s headquarters in Brussels.
► Washington accredits the thesis of a Ukrainian defense missile fallen in Poland
The White House on Wednesday accredited the hypothesis that the missile which fell in Poland came from the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense, while estimating that Russia was, ” ultimately “, responsible in this case. Americans don’t have “nothing seen that contradicts” this scenario, put forward by Warsaw but rejected by kyiv, said Wednesday a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, Adrienne Watson.
“We have full confidence in the investigation carried out by the Polish government into the explosion that occurred near the border with Ukraine and we welcome the professionalism and rigor with which it is being conducted” she added, on behalf of this organization attached to President Joe Biden.
► “Difficult” week ahead in the Kyiv region after the Russian strikes on Tuesday
The coming week will be « difficile » for the inhabitants of the kyiv region in Ukraine, regional governor Oleksiï Kouleba warned on Wednesday, the day after heavy Russian strikes which again damaged the electricity network.
“The destruction is important”, alerted the regional governor in a video posted on Telegram, despite the work “all night electricians and all the necessary services” to repair the affected infrastructure. According to him, “this situation will continue next week”. “We anticipate the coming week to be quite difficult, as it is expected that (…) temperatures drop to -10°C. »
► Moscow claims to have destroyed all its targets in the massive strikes on Tuesday
Russia claimed to have destroyed all of its targets in massive strikes the day before in Ukraine, saying it had targeted Ukrainian military command and energy infrastructure.
“The objective was completed, the missiles all precisely hit the identified targets, all these sites were destroyed”, said the Russian Ministry of Defense, claiming to have targeted “the military command system of Ukraine and the energy facilities connected to it”. He also claimed to have carried out no strike on kyiv the day before, ensuring that the destruction observed in the Ukrainian capital was caused by the Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense.
US Chief of Staff General Mark Milley has called strikes against civilian energy infrastructure in Ukraine a ” war crime “.
► France wants a “greater mediation role” from China
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that he hoped China, which refused to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine, would play “a more important role of mediation” in the war.
“China can play a greater mediation role with us in the coming months” especially for “avoid even stronger offensives from February”, he told reporters after the G20 summit in Indonesia.