BALI, INDONESIA —
U.S., Polish and NATO officials all agreed Wednesday that an explosion in eastern Poland that killed two people was likely caused by a Ukrainian air defense missile.
The U.S. National Security Council said it had "seen nothing that contradicts" Polish President Andrzej Duda's "preliminary assessment that this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland."
But Russia is "ultimately responsible for this tragic incident" with its now nearly nine-month invasion of Ukraine, the security council said.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters, "Ukraine has an ironclad right to defend itself."
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg offered a similar assessment, telling reporters in Brussels after a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, "Let me be clear: this is not Ukraine's fault. Russia bears ultimate responsibility as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine."
The NATO chief said the best way to prevent a similar incident in the future is for Russia to stop its fighting in Ukraine.
Stoltenberg declined to provide additional details when asked if a Ukrainian missile had intercepted a Russian missile in the area or if fragments from a Russian missile were found on the ground. He told reporters NATO would later decide how much to reveal from its investigation.
Polish leader Duda also said Wednesday there was "nothing to suggest" an intentional Russian attack against his country.
"Ukraine's defense was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles unfortunately fell on Polish territory," Duda said.
Earlier Wednesday, leaders of NATO and the Group of Seven met for an emergency meeting on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss the incident.
"We agreed to support Poland's investigation into the explosion in rural Poland near the Ukrainian border," U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters. "And I'm going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened."
In a hastily arranged emergency meeting, Biden convened leaders of Canada, the European Commission, the European Council, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and Spain following the explosion on Tuesday.
NATO and Russia clashes
Moscow's representative to the United Nations said that the blast was designed to spark a war between Russia and NATO.
"There is an attempt to provoke a direct military clash between NATO and Russia, with all the consequences for the world," Dmitry Polyansky said in a statement posted on his Telegram channel.
During their emergency meeting Wednesday, the allied leaders in Bali also discussed the latest series of Russian missile attacks across Ukraine, Biden said, calling Moscow's actions "totally unconscionable."
"And the moment when the world had come together at the G-20 to urge de-escalation, Russia continues to — has chosen to escalate in Ukraine. While we're meeting," Biden said.
The U.S. president was awakened overnight by staff with news of the missile explosion. He spoke over the phone with Duda and Stoltenberg prior to convening the NATO and G-7 meeting, talks made up of representatives of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and major industrial nations.
Biden promised Duda "full U.S. support for and assistance with Poland's investigation" and "reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to NATO." He expressed condolences for the loss of the two lives.
G-20 leaders' statement
At the end of the G-20 summit Wednesday, the group released a statement saying that "most" members "strongly condemned" the war in Ukraine and stressed the conflict is exacerbating an already fragile global economy.
"There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions," the leaders said in the statement, adding that while the G-20 is not "the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy."
In what appeared to be veiled criticism of Russia's aggression, leaders stated that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons was "inadmissible." The group also called for an extension of the agreement with Russia that allows Ukrainian grain exports. It is set to expire Saturday.
News of the explosion disrupted the schedule of the G-20 summit hosted by President Joko Widodo. G-7 leaders arrived more than an hour late to a mangrove planting event designed to highlight the group's climate agenda.
"The G-20 is an economic forum, a financial forum, and diplomat forum, not a political forum. So here we talk about the economy," Widodo told a reporter at the site as he was waiting for the G-7 leaders to arrive.
The Indonesian leader filled the delay time by giving reporters a tour of the mangroves.
The head of the Russian delegation, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, was not at the event held at Bali's mangrove forest park. Russian state media reported that he had left the island.
VOA's White House correspondent Anita Powell and VOA's State Department Bureau chief Nike Ching contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters and The Associated Press.