Russia-Ukraine War Live Updates: Ukraine seeks access to missile strike site in Poland

Belarus said Wednesday it had shot down a reconnaissance drone approaching from Ukraine, the latest incident along a border that Russia used to launch its military operation in Ukraine."Border guards in Pinsk spotted a quadcopter 100 metres from the border, heading from the Ukrainian side to the territory of Belarus," the border guard said in a statement."A border patrol shot down the drone with a Kalashnikov rifle," it added.

Ukraine has evidence of a "Russian trace" in an explosion in eastern Poland which Warsaw and Nato say was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Wednesday, without giving any details.

Both Poland and the United States would have to agree to Ukraine taking part in the investigation into a missile that landed in a village in southeastern Poland, the Polish president said on Wednesday."The proceedings are conducted by Polish and American experts and if anyone was to be allowed to take part in these proceedings it would need at least the agreement of both parties," Andrzej Duda told a news conference.

Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that a blast in Poland that killed two people was probably not an attack by Russia, but rather caused by a Ukrainian air defense system meant to counter a Russian aerial bombardment. He added that the alliance has “no indication that Russia is preparing action” against any of its 30 member countries.

US-provided NASAMS air defense systems have had a 100% success rate in Ukraine intercepting Russian missiles, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday, as NATO said an errant Ukrainian air defense interceptor was likely the cause of an explosion in Poland on Tuesday.Austin, speaking at the start of a routine virtual meeting of dozens of defense ministers on Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said the United States would work with Poland to gather more information on the explosion, but he did not assign blame.

Ukraine wants access to the site of an explosion in eastern Poland which Western officials say was probably caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Wednesday.Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said Ukraine wanted a joint study of Tuesday's incident with its partners and to see the information that provided the basis for its allies' conclusions.

"From the information that we and our allies have, it was an S-300 rocket made in the Soviet Union, an old rocket and there is no evidence that it was launched by the Russian side," Andrzej Duda said. "It is highly probable that it was fired by Ukrainian anti-aircraft defense."

Russia's Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that an explosion in Polish territory on Tuesday had been caused by a Ukrainian air defence missile, and that Russian strikes in Ukraine had been no closer than 35 km (22 miles) from the Polish border.