Russia may not be behind Poland blast: Joe Biden

• Preliminary information suggests blast in Poland may not have been caused by a Russian missile.
• Joe Biden convenes an emergency meeting of world leaders in Bali, Indonesia.
• Poland is a member of NATO, the defensive alliance that also includes the United States.

US President Joe Biden stated that the United States and its NATO allies are studying the blast that killed two people in Poland, but preliminary information shows that it may not have been caused by a Russian missile.

Biden remarked after world leaders gathered for the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, held an emergency meeting on Wednesday in response to catastrophic explosions in Poland that Ukrainian and Polish authorities attributed to missiles manufactured by Russia.

Asked about claims that the blast was linked to Russia, Biden said: “There is preliminary information that contests that. I don’t want to say that until we completely investigate it but it is unlikely in the lines of the trajectory that it was fired from Russia but we’ll see.”

Biden stated that the US and NATO nations would conduct exhaustive investigations before taking action.

According to the White House, Biden convened the discussion after two people were murdered in an explosion in Przewodow, an eastern Polish village near the border with Ukraine.

At the summit were representatives from the United States, Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Japan, Spain, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom.

All except for Japan are members of NATO, the defensive alliance that also includes Poland.

A judgment that Moscow was responsible for the explosion might trigger Article 5 of NATO’s collective defense principle, which states that an attack on one member of the Western alliance is considered an attack on all, triggering talks on a potential military response.

Poland stated that it was determining if it was required to request consultations under Article 4 of the alliance, which permits NATO members to bring any topic of concern, notably security-related, to the North Atlantic Council for debate.

Poland summoned Russia’s envoy to Warsaw for an explanation after Moscow denied it was responsible.