Poland will not invite Ukraine to co-host missile strike investigation

WARSAW, Poland — The Polish authorities will not ask Ukraine to co-host the investigation of the fatal missile strike in Poland’s south-east. Warsaw believes the strike was most likely caused by Ukrainian air defense attempting to intercept a missile fired by Russia, according to a senior Polish official.

“The information we have received from the Ukrainian side is of very significant importance to us. However, it is certain that Ukraine, just like any other country, will not be the co-host of the investigation, because this is our, Polish investigation,” Paweł Soloch, an adviser to Polish President Andrzej Duda, told local broadcaster Radio Plus in an interview.

Soloch said it is “in the interest of Ukraine, but also ours, and in the interest of the entire Western world, not only NATO states, that this issue does not become an issue that would impact in a way that would limit our truly close cooperation and support, that we, and the entire Western world, provide to Ukraine in its combat against the Russian invader.”

The politician is a longtime aide to Duda, and was appointed by the president to serve as the head of the country’s National Security Bureau from 2015 to 2022. Last month, Duda asked Soloch to serve as his adviser.

The latest announcement comes in response to declarations by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy who has disputed the preliminary findings of the Polish government. In a statement released by his office, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s representatives should be allowed to access the missile strike’s site in Przewodów, a village in close proximity to the Ukrainian border.

“It is fair and honest. We have the right to be in a joint investigative team. According to any norms, diplomacy, etc., especially since we are all partners,” Zelenskyy said on Nov. 16.

In a statement released the following day, the Ukrainian president subsequently declared that “our specialists will go there and join this professional community.”

The missile strike, in which two men were killed, took place on Nov. 15 after Russia’s military launched its largest string of attacks on Ukrainian cities in more than a month.

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