President Joe Biden has been adamant that the US will support Ukraine in its nine-month struggle to fend off an invasion by Russia.
“We will not fight the Third World War in Ukraine,” he has insisted, as reported by Reuters.
Therefore, he and his senior team of advisers were thrown into crisis mode when a missile struck a hamlet in Poland close to the Ukraine border on Nov. 15 and there were early suspicions it was launched by Russia.
If Russia attacked, the United States and other NATO members would be forced to defend Poland militarily, which may lead to a world war that everyone wished to avoid.
Aides woke up Biden in the middle of the night in Bali, Indonesia, in the final days of his week-long trip to Asia to inform him that a missile had killed two people in Poland, a U.S. official said.
Officials from Ukraine officially blamed Russia, as did an Associated Press story that has since been amended and cited an unnamed senior U.S. intelligence officer.
The claims caused panic among the government and stock markets. Countries in Eastern Europe reacted violently, and the fever increased.
Initial reports from American sources suggested that Ukraine may have shot the missile in an effort to fend against an onslaught of Russian missiles and that it had unintentionally landed in Poland.
The White House and other U.S. agencies made few public statements while they sought confirmation.
“We cannot confirm the reports or any of the details at this time. We will determine what happened and what the appropriate next steps would be,” said White House spokesperson Adrienne Watson.
(with inputs from agencies)
