kyiv reaffirmed on Wednesday that the missile that killed two people in Poland was Russian, contradicting Washington and its allies, which rather accredit the thesis of a Ukrainian missile.
Zelensky persists. In a statement on Wednesday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reaffirmed that the missile that killed two people in a Polish village near the border with Ukraine was Russian.
“I have no doubt that missile was not ours,” he said.
However, caution was required on the side of NATO, Europe and the United States. As of Tuesday evening, Moscow denied having bombed Polish soil. And a few hours before Zelensky’s statement on Wednesday, Polish President Andrzej Duda mentioned an accident from the Ukrainian defense.
“There is no indication that this was an intentional attack on Poland,” he told reporters. There is “no indication of a deliberate attack” in Poland, then declared the head of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.
Finally in the evening, Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, also supported the thesis of a Ukrainian defense missile.
“In the context, we can excuse it”
“For the first time, Russia is saying something that turns out to be correct about this missile, which puts the propaganda on the other side in difficulty”, analysis on the set of BFMTV Ulysse Gosset, international political columnist.
“But we must not forget the main thing: there is a terrible day vis-a-vis Ukraine,” he continues, recalling the Russian strikes on Ukrainian territory. “In the context, we can excuse him, because this is the first time he has slipped a little,” explains Ulysse Gosset.
But this stubbornness nevertheless looks like a strategic error for Volodymyr Zelensky. The Hungarian government thus estimated on Wednesday that the Ukrainian president was giving “a bad example”
“In such a situation, world leaders speak responsibly,” Gergely Gulyas, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff, told reporters.
However, “the Ukrainian president, by immediately accusing the Russians, was wrong, it is a bad example”, he added, welcoming on the contrary the cautious attitude of Poland and the United States.
“It complicates life”
The immediate declaration of the Ukrainian president is also criticized on the French side. In an interview with our colleagues from FranceInfoGeneral Michel Yakovleff, a general officer in the French army, asserts that Zelensky “lost an opportunity to be silent.”
“He has a capital of sympathy but I don’t see why he rushed. It’s embarrassing for him vis-à-vis NATO and it opens up a real avenue for Russian propaganda,” said the general, who considers that Volodymyr Zelensky is “complicating his life.”
The position of the Ukrainian president has indeed been widely denounced by Moscow. On BFMTV, the spokesperson for the Russian Embassy in France, Alexander Makogonov, notably affirmed that Zelensky “[avait eu] a hysterical reaction.”