CNN, in a story posted yesterday, provided what amounts to a timeline of the events starting with the impact of the missile in southeastern Poland on Tuesday, Nov. 15, from approximately 4 p.m., which is already early evening in Poland, about 10 a.m. in Washington, and about 11 p.m. in Bali, Indonesia, where President Joe Biden was at the time. At the center of the account is that the traveling White House scrambled to call everyone relevant to the crisis—except, there was no call between Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart. The account is based entirely on unnamed sources.
Once Biden, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who was traveling with Biden, were notified, they began a round of phone calls to find out exactly what had happened, starting with their Polish counterparts. “As the morning wore on, there and more intelligence came in, it became clear to American officials examining satellite-based intelligence systems and speaking to their Polish counterparts that the missile, which landed on a Polish farm in the country’s far east, appeared to have been launched by Ukraine as part of its air defense systems,” CNN reported. “After several anxious hours, Biden was the first to relieve some of the tension, telling reporters that initial information suggested the missile was not launched by Russia.”
CNN notes that an hour after the news had broken, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on TV claiming that “Russian missiles hit Poland,” and calling it “a very significant escalation” that required a response. Sullivan quickly called Zelenskyy’s office after those remarks, and urged officials to tread more carefully with how they were speaking about the incident, sources familiar with the call said. Biden and Zelenskyy did not speak on Tuesday night, despite requests by the Ukrainian leader to arrange a call, a source familiar with the matter said.
