Poland and the head of NATO said Wednesday that the missile that killed two people when it hit a Polish village on the Ukrainian border was likely a stray fired by Ukraine’s air defense forces — and not a Russian strike.

“Ukraine’s defense was launching their missiles in various directions and it is highly probable that one of these missiles, unfortunately, fell on Polish territory,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said. “There is nothing, absolutely nothing, to suggest that it was an intentional attack on Poland.”

NATO leaders on Wednesday held an emergency meeting in Brussels, where Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg echoed the preliminary findings.

“We have no indication that this was the result of a deliberate attack,” Stoltenberg said.

But Stoltenberg added that he wanted to “be clear” that “this is not Ukraine’s fault.”

“Russia bears ultimate responsibility, as it continues its illegal war against Ukraine,” he added.

The missile landed on a grain facility in the village of Przewodów, about 15 miles from the Ukrainian border, and initially raised concerns that neighboring nations could be pulled into the Ukraine war.

President Biden told reporters Tuesday evening that it was “unlikely” the deadly strike had been fired by Russia, but that NATO would meet to “support Poland’s investigation.”

“We have seen nothing that contradicts President Duda’s preliminary assessment that this explosion was most likely the result of a Ukrainian air defense missile that unfortunately landed in Poland,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in a statement Wednesday.

Poland said it would invoke NATO’s Article 4, a formal call for allies to meet about a security threat, but it’s unclear if they still will after findings suggested that the blast was not an act of Russian aggression.

But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky continued to express confidence Wednesday in his military’s assessment that “it wasn’t our missile or our missile strike” that hit Poland. 

He called Wednesday for Ukrainian investigators to have access to the site.

“Let’s say openly, if, God forbid, some remnant [of Ukrainian air-defense systems] killed a person — these people — then we need to apologize,” he said. “But first there needs to be a probe, access — we want to get the data you have.”

Photos taken after the blast show immense damage to the village of Przewodów, including what appears to be a massive crater in the ground.

In one of the first daylight images taken following the explosion, shared to Twitter by Polska Policja, investigators can be seen sifting through the hole in the ground.

The explosion near the Ukrainian border came as Russia has amped up its missile attacks targeting Ukrainian energy infrastructure as the nine-month-long war drags on.

An estimated 25% of Ukrainian civilians are without power as a result of the strikes.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces continued operations in the south, reportedly shelling the east bank of the Dnipro River, where Russian troops have dug in.

Ukraine’s Operational Command South said Kyiv’s forces were also conducting strikes against the Kinburn Spit — a narrow piece of land on the eastern side of the mouth of the Dnipro.

The spit — thought to be used by the Russians to target artillery strikes into Kherson and Mykolaiv provinces — could also offer the Ukrainians a way to flank Russian positions along the Dnipro.

Intense fighting reportedly continued in the eastern Donbas region, where Russian forces — including Wagner Group paramilitaries — continued to push for the Donetsk province town of Bakhmut.

Donetsk regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said Wednesday that seven Ukrainian towns had been shelled in the province, killing four civilians and wounding seven.

With Post wires